Report card: The highest and lowest performing school districts in Florida
Florida Phoenix | By Jay Waagmeester | July 24, 2024
Grades rating Florida public school districts and individual schools were released Wednesday, showing which have performed best according to metrics laid out by the state.
Schools were graded using measurements including achievement in English language arts, math, science, and social studies, graduations, acceleration success for middle and high school students, and maintaining a focus on students who need the most support.
Test scores in math, sciences, social studies, English language arts, other exams, and graduation rates and scoring on dual enrollment courses are incorporated into the scores ranging from “A” through “F.”
Florida School Grades 2024
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Grading by county shows Lafayette, St. Johns, Nassau, Walton, and Sarasota rounding out the highest scoring counties, with Lafayette scoring 73% in the aforementioned categories.
Twenty-two counties received “A” grades, including Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Broward.
The grading scale changed from the previous year to incorporate learning gains on state assessments in the previously mentioned school subjects in this year’s report.
Learning gains are calculated by increases in statewide testing scores among students. That number could not be included in 2022-2023, as that was the first year of the new statewide assessment, the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking. The second consecutive year of the assessment in 2023-2024 allowed for a year-to-year comparison of exam scores.
The threshold change is a result of legislative action and Board of Education reaction. Schools that scored 64% or higher earned an “A” this year as opposed to 2022-2023 when high schools needed a score of 70% or higher to earn an “A” grade and middle schools 68%.
For 2023-2024, scores of 57%-63% earned a B. The “C” and “D” range is 34%-56%; anything 33% or lower resulted in an F.
No districts received an “F” — although 10 schools did. There were 113 schools in the “D” and “F” range, 98 fewer than the year before, when 211 schools received the lowest two grades.
Board of Education Chair Ben Gibson said during the board’s meeting Wednesday that changing the scale helps to more accurately reflect school performance.
“An A or B doesn’t mean nothing if everyone gets an A or a B,” Gibson said. “The idea that we have a school grading system that accurately reflects where our schools are, and we hope obviously that all schools are continuously improving, but you’re never going to be perfect and you got to continue to improve, and we have got to make sure what we’re measuring and the accountability measures that we put in place are going to accurately reflect where our schools are.”
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said in a news release that the grades reflect the state’s “steadfast commitment to excellence in education.”
The lowest district score was Gadsden at 46%. Other counties making up the bottom 10 were Holmes, Madison, Washington, Bradford, Putnam, DeSoto, Okeechobee, Franklin, and Hamilton, all receiving “C” grades.
No districts reported a “D” or “F” grade, although Jefferson and Taylor counties did not receive scores, either because of too-low participation numbers or because testing administration is under review.
More than 2,000 schools, 64%, earned an “A” or “B.” Last year, 57% hit either of those marks.
