Alachua County Public School students outscored their Florida peers on a most of the state tests released last week by the Florida Department of Education.
Fifty-five percent of local third- through 10th-graders earned a Level 3 or higher on the English Language Arts exams compared to the state average of 52 percent. At the high school level, the local percentage of students at Level 3 or above was 56 percent compared to the state average of 50 percent. In math, local students matched the state averages, with 57 percent of students scoring at Level 3 or above in grades 3 through 8 in both Alachua County and in Florida.
Jackie Johnson, the director of communications and community initiatives for Alachua County Public Schools, said county public school students have a history of outscoring their peers on most exams in the state.
“It’s the encouragement of students, and encouraging them to reach the higher bar that is constantly being set, and making sure that UF program services are in place that can help them reach that bar,” Johnson said.
Although the increase in test scores is good, Johnson said it is not the same for every child.
“There’s not going to be one formula that’s going to do that for every child in every subject,” Johnson said. “That’s why we have to look so carefully at the data and break it down and look school by school, classroom by classroom, child by child, and see where their strengths and weaknesses are.”
For schools to succeed, the effort has to happen on the ground in the classroom with teachers looking very carefully at all the data to see what children need, said Johnson.
“There's lots of teacher training that goes on,” Johnson said. “We make data available to teachers as much as we possibly can.”
On the Grade 5 science test, local students surpassed the state achievement rate 58 percent to 51 percent. Local students came in slightly below their state peers in Grade 8 science, where the local achievement rate of 49 percent was one point below the state rate of 50 percent.
“We’re pleased that our students are beating the state average in so many categories, but continuous improvement is our goal,” said Karen Clark, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. “We’ll be digging down into all these figures within the next few weeks so that we can ensure we have the right strategies in place for the upcoming school year.”
This is the second year that students took the new Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) in English language arts, math and the algebra and geometry end-of-course exams. Students are still taking the FCAT 2.0 exam in science and in the biology, civics and U.S. History end-of-course exams.
“Today’s results show that our focus on improved student learning is working, and I commend our state’s students, educators, parents and school administrators for their hard work throughout the 2015-16 school year,” said Commissioner Pam Stewart in the release.
Bob Hastings, the superintendent of Levy County Schools, said he is happy to see the scores going up. Hastings said schools have been using strategies, including focus maps and critical agendas, to keep track of students' progress.
“The end result is always wanting students to do better,” Hastings said.
Karen Jordan, the public information officer for Hernando County Schools, said that this year teachers worked from shared curriculum maps to help avoid wasting precious instructional time repeating efforts on the same standards.
“We added standards-based instruction, focused professional development and curriculum maps this year, and that will be the plan for 2016-17 as well,” Jordan said.
Johnson said there are long-term strategies set in place to ensure continued success. Things like, language development, STEM Programs, art programs and even programs to help children with mental health issues.
“Superintendents have made it very clear that they have grave concerns about the credibility of the overall accountability system: (the) amount of testing it requires, (the) nature of the test, the way schools are graded,” Johnson said.
In a news release accompanying the release of the 2016 scores, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart referred to the ‘higher bar’ students were expected to reach this year.
“My goal is continuous, sustainable improvement no matter what the assessment,” said Superintendent Dr. Owen Roberts. “That can be challenging in a climate of continuously changing standards and tests, but we are committed to helping all students reach that ‘higher bar’ the Commissioner is talking about.”
School and district grades are based in large part on the results of the state’s standardized tests. The state has not yet announced when those grades will be released.