Pasco schools declare 5th grade science ‘emergency’ after early testing

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | October 7, 2025

Experts are rewriting class lessons for the remainder of the year.

Pasco County fifth grade classes need improvement in science, right away.

Early assessments aimed to monitor children’s progress in key subjects showed that 35% of district fifth graders were on track for success. Last fall, 45% of fifth graders were at that level.

That decline alarmed Deputy Superintendent Monica Ilse, who declared a science “emergency” for the grade level after seeing the results.

She called key educators over a recent weekend to tell them that they’d be conducting a major revision of science lessons for the remainder of the academic year. The state tests children in science in the fifth and eighth grades, in addition to those who take a biology end-of-course exam.

“We’re basically going to rewrite the curriculum that is there, make sure it is better for teachers,” Ilse said Tuesday after reviewing achievement data with the school board. “We do need to address these concerns.”

While district specialists create more “user-friendly” day-to-day lessons for teachers to use, Ilse said, principals have been reminded to ensure that there’s time each school day for children to receive those lessons.

It’s a critical point, said school board chairperson Cynthia Armstrong, a onetime high school science teacher.

“It is something that has been on our radar,” Armstrong said. “There is so much emphasis on reading and math in state testing. We need to make sure we don’t forget about our science.”

One of the issues this year, Ilse said, was that the district adopted new materials for both math and science. The math changes came earlier than planned, amid recognition statewide that students had been falling behind in that subject.

The science adoption took place as scheduled in the state’s five-year cycle of refreshing textbooks.

In many district elementary schools, some fifth grade teachers split duties so some instruct math and science while others handle language arts and social studies. That meant several educators were confronted with preparing new approaches for two fields of study instead of the usual one.

That proved a heavy lift, Ilse said.

She said the goal is to get the science updates done quickly enough that teachers and students can make up ground to get back on track. She anticipated the materials should be available for training sessions scheduled for next week, before children begin the second quarter.

Over time, the district anticipates reviewing science lessons for all elementary grades.

In other progress monitoring results, the district matched or exceeded state level results in language arts in all grade levels but kindergarten for the first time in recent memory.

It also saw gains in math performance in all but two grade levels, though officials said the percentages of students demonstrating proficiency remained too low, with four grade levels below state results.

Ilse said the district’s “minimal goal” is to outperform the state.