School districts in Florida typically receive their district report cards (school grades) by Mid-July of each year. This year has been different.

School grades were anticipated to be released anywhere from late November to early January. One may question why the school grades have been delayed this long.

As many already know, Florida students moved to a series of new statewide assessments called the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) tests.

New standards and a changed testing model created the need for the Florida Department of Education to determine a new proficiency level as well as determine what the system to scale the scores would be for 2022-2023.

Tests have proven to be more difficult to score because FAST tests are unlike anything students have been exposed to before. It’s a series of three tests administered throughout the year that include computerized questions programmed to be more challenging as the student answers questions correctly.

Students sitting in the same testing room answered entirely different questions with varying degrees of difficulty, therefore making scoring more challenging.

New standards and the FAST were an effort to evaluate student literacy and move away from evaluating memorization.

All schools in the state will receive a standing letter grade despite being an experimental year for the new test and standards.

A variety of factors such as graduation rates, industry certifications, and “learning gains” that measure how much individual students have progressed have factored into how schools have traditionally been scored.

Learning gains are a demonstration of the progress a student, who may have started the school year behind and below grade level, makes in an academic year. A student is considered to have successful learning growth if they made enough progress. When this kind of growth happened, the overall school’s grade was ranked higher even if the level of students considered on grade level was lower.

This will not be the case for 2022-2023 FAST results. The state will only look at their test proficiency as the primary measure of the school’s success.

Learning gains will be included in the determination of 2023-2034 school grades since the state will have the data necessary to compare student growth to the previous year. This is expected to boost school grades back up if they take a hit during the 2022-23 school year.

How did local schools fare last year? 2021-2022 school grades are listed below:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS:

Central Elementary – A

Country Oaks Elementary – C

Eastside Elementary – C

LaBelle Elementary – C

Westside Elementary – B

Upthegrove Elementary – C

MIDDLE SCHOOLS:

Clewiston Middle – C

LaBelle Middle – C

HIGH SCHOOLS:

LaBelle High – C

Clewiston High – C