Sarasota County Schools Rank #4 Of 67 Counties In Latest State Report; Manatee Plummets To 47th!

Florida State Department of Education releases 2011 school district report cards – Sarasota Tops List Of 67 County Schools At #4.

Sarasota earns #4 spot.

Manatee drops to #47.

Two neighboring counties – very different school district report cards.

Why the HUGE difference in K-12 education between all public school in 2 neighboring counties?

Therein lies the question….

Click READ MORE below now for straightforward discussion about Sarasota-Manatee schools and NOT SO SURPRISING school district report cards.

GRADES ARE ONE FORM OF ASSESSMENT

Let me repeat something VERY important – GRADES ARE (JUST) ONE FORM OF ASSESSMENT…albeit an important component (most) people scrutinize when looking at school or school district effectiveness.

Important: For 16 years, I taught English and coached at the high school level. I KNOW how to scrutinize schools beyond state report cards. Just as you know how NOT to judge your child/children by his/her/their report cards, people should NOT judge school districts by a FL DOE report card…especially until they know exactly on what FACTORS schools/school districts are graded. Is this a fair request?

First, let’s look at the state’s reporting of Sarasota & Manatee school districts’ grades:

source: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/default.asp

Sarasota Blows Doors Off Manatee County Schools In All Subject Area Categories!

Now, let’s look at specific grade differences (beyond Sarasota’s “A” rating and Manatee’s “B” rating) between the two neighboring school districts:

State of Florida Department Of Education ranks Manatee #47/67 counties based on the following aggregate school grades:

• 65% of students in Manatee schools score at Level 3 or higher in reading (compared to 78% of students in #4 state-ranked Sarasota County schools).
• 69% of students in Manatee schools score at Level 3 or higher in math (compared to 82% of students in Sarasota County schools).
• 80% of students in Manatee schools meet the writing standard (compared to 88% of students in Sarasota County schools).
• 47% of students in Manatee schools score at Level 3 or higher in science (compared to 64% of students in Sarasota County schools).

Further important to the state “scoring rubric” is a factor called learning gains. This is a factor that shows annual yearly gains…in all scoring factors including (but not limited to % of students who improve from year to year).

From the chart, you can see Manatee students compare favorably with students attending Sarasota County schools in PERCENT of students making learning gains in reading & math.

However, we MUST note that when kids (in Sarasota) already are scoring in the upper 70th to upper 80th percentiles, it’s more challenging to squeeze out more gains. Therefore, it’s not surprising to see comparable scores when comparing Sarasota & Manatee Counties on percent of students making learning gains in math and reading.

Truth Behind Sarasota & Manatee Counties’ Florida State Report Cards!

Numbers don’t tell the whole story – good or bad – when it comes to report cards for students, schools or districts. Unfortunately, politicians continue promoting school/district reporting while pushing for more and more testing.

Unfortunately….

• Some parents beat the hell out of their kids or yank their kids from co-curricular activities when grades slip. WRONG! Such parents CLEARLY are too ignorant to INTERPRET a grade report or drill down to the real issue(s) affecting the less-than-desirable grades. In fact, parenting involves continuous modeling by showing regard for education, not simply getting all “wigged out” by “poor” grades at report card time  – WRONG approach! Regard for education and helping children on a continuous basis ensures better understanding of curricular material, learning & scores.
• Some taxpayers/parents denounce certain schools and/or districts when state report cards reveal scores less than “A.”  Whether or not a school and/or district’s schools are effective, a person must scrutinize the specific SCHOOL, administration, teachers & curriculum.

Report cards -including both student report cards, school report cards or County report cards- DO NOT prove kids are learning or that one county’s schools or teachers or curricular focus are BETTER…or worse.

Look at EACH school within the district – rather, scrutinize the specific school (and admin, teachers & curriculum) to where you send (or want to send) your kids.

Bottom Line – *and this is critical* – more factors beyond each state’s GRADES must be evaluated before praising or condemning schools or districts.

For instance, one must review socioeconomic data for each school:

1. Look at % of students on free and reduced school lunch program.
2. Look at % of student population where English is a second language.
3. Look for parental support  **Most Important** parental involvement and discipline – not economic status – determine academic success. Do parents value and support education beyond lip service? Are parents involved in their kids’ lives? My teaching experience does NOT confirm that kids from poor backgrounds can’t/don’t learn. It all depends. I will admit it’s more difficult for kids in socioeconomically challenged areas to succeed academically. However, it’s very possible and it does happen every day. I’ve experienced it!

 

 K-12 Education Reality Check – Questions We Must Address

• Why has the public allowed FCAT (or state standardized) scoring – ONE SINGE ASSESSMENT – to determine whether a school and/or district is failing?
• Why are politicians pushing for more standardized testing instead of “portfolio” assessment with FCAT serving as one component of student performance?
• What curricular changes must be considered/made to increase student performance?
• To what degree are socioeconomic conditions affecting learning in areas where kids are not performing well?
• Why do schools with high high numbers of students receiving free and reduced lunch report poorer student performance?

Yes, I want to hear your thoughts. Please share your opinions on school/school district score reporting. How do you respond to this latest report card?

For you data crunchers, the top 5 districts: St. Johns; Santa Rosa; Martin; Sarasota and Gilchrist. For a full list, go to https://app2.fldoe.org/SchoolDistrictRanking/

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Tagged as: fcat, florida depart of education, Lakewood Ranch High School, Riverview High School, sarasota 4th