A school's grade isn't as simple as ABCs

Parents need to weigh the importance of a school's FCAT score, but also put the score in context with other factors.

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000

It seems so simple, giving each school a letter grade. But what makes an A, B, C, D or F? Think tax code, and you will begin to understand the complexity.

Evaluating our schools: FCAT scores and state grades for area schools [2 charts] On the Internet The Florida Department of Education's Web site lists the grades for all public schools in Florida. The address is http://www.firn. edu/doe/ schoolgrades.

Among other things, the grades are based on test scores, absenteeism and even the percentage of students tested at each school. The chart on the following pages lists all of the pieces that made up each school's score. We have grouped grade schools, middle schools and high schools together. Within each category, the schools are listed by letter grade and are in alphabetical order in each section.

The test scores themselves are based on results of a big exam -- the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test -- given each year.

Now picture a hurdle race when you think of a school's path to a grade. The school's students must clear every hurdle to get a certain grade. The higher the grade, the more hurdles. Knock over one hurdle, and the school won't make a top grade no matter by how much it clears the others.

Let's start with what makes a C. All of these standards are for a grade school.

(When middle and high school standards differ from these, they are in parentheses.)

C schools must meet or exceed the state's minimum standards.

That means the school must clear three hurdles: 60 percent of its students must score at Level 2 or above on FCAT reading and math. And half of the students must score a 3 or higher on FCAT writing (formerly Florida Writes). (For middle schools, 67 percent must achieve 3 or higher on writing; high schools, 75 percent.)

A school that knocks over any one of these hurdles drops to a D.

A school that knocks down all three hurdles gets an F.

To get a B, there are more hurdles, and they are higher than for a C.

On the FCAT, half of the students must achieve at least a Level 3 in reading and math, and two-thirds must score 3 or higher in writing. (For middle schools, the FCAT writing percentage is 75; for high schools, 80.)

Moreover, the school must cut down -- or at least not see a rise in -- the percentage of students who score the worst on the reading portion of the FCAT.

Last of all, at least 90 percent of the standard curriculum students must have taken the tests.

To get an A, a school must do everything a B school does and more.

There must be a substantial improvement in reading. The state defines that as more than a 2 percent increase between 1999 and 2000 in the number of students scoring Level 3 or higher on the reading FCAT. (If a school is already at 75 percent, it doesn't have to improve, but it cannot drop by 2 percentage points.)

Also, there must be no substantial decline in writing or math performance. The state defines that as a decline from one year to the next of 5 or more percentage points in students scoring FCAT achievement Level 3 and above in math or a decline of 5 or more percentage points in the percent of students scoring 3 and above on the writing FCAT.

Last of all, at least 95 percent of the standard curriculum students must have taken the tests.

Perhaps most important, an A school cannot simply do well this year. In some areas, it has to do better than the year before or it cannot get an A.

Take Bay Vista Fundamental (which got an A) and Pasadena Fundamental (which got a B). In most test score categories the state uses, Pasadena actually outperformed Bay Vista. But the number of Pasadena students who achieved a Level 3 in the reading FCAT declined from 85 percent in 1999 to 78 percent this year. So although Pasadena's number in that category was higher than Bay Vista's this year, Pasadena got a B because of the drop from its own score last year.

That can be the difference between a B and an A.

Source: Florida Department of Education

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