Duval County Receives 2010 FCAT Grades
Jacksonville, FL – After a delay of several months, the Florida Department of Education has released the 2010 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results. While 86 percent of Duval County public schools have made a satisfactory grade or higher, and some schools saw improvements, other schools saw a decrease.
"With the significant anomalies in the FCAT results that school districts throughout the state are seeing, we believe these scores are not indicative of the academic achievement and learning gains actually taking place in our schools, especially in the elementary schools. We welcome accountability as long as it is based on fair and valid assessments," said Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals. “We know that our students, teachers, principals and staff are working hard to make gains in academic achievement, and will continue to do so each school year."
This has been a difficult year for the state in regards to the FCAT results. First, reporting of individual student scores were delayed because of a problem with the state's new testing contractor, NCS Pearson, which Education Commissioner Eric Smith called “absolutely unacceptable.” Then at the request of school districts throughout the state, who each saw large anomalies in FCAT results, it was requested of and granted by the state to conduct audit reviews of the results.
As stated in one of the audit reports released earlier this week, nearly 400 elementary schools across the state will move from a grade of “A” to a lower grade in 2010. This is the greatest decrease in the number of "A" elementary schools since the beginning of the Florida Accountability system.
This year in Duval County, 127 schools out of 149 earned excellent, good or satisfactory grades, while 21 schools received a D or F. Duval County Public Schools continues to remain a "B" district.
The shining stars in this year's results are Englewood, Justina Road, Sallye B. Mathis and S.P Livingston elementary schools, who saw an increase in two letter grades. Mathis and Englewood were rated as “A” schools, while Justina Road improved from a “D” to a “B” and
Livingston improved from an “F” to a “C.” These schools have continued to improve their grades despite more than half of their students being eligible for free and reduced lunch. Throughout the district, 18 schools continue to beat the odds earning a grade of “A” and having at least half of their students on free and reduced lunch. Six of which have more than 80% of students on free and reduced lunch.
School grades are based on student performance as measured by the Sunshine State Standards section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The 2009 FCAT results released in May reported that more Duval County students are performing at or above grade level in reading, math and science compared to previous years.
Duval County's school-level summary reports are available
here. Complete state, district and school-level summary reports are available at: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org.
Duval County Public Schools, the nation's 21st largest school district, operates 166 schools and serves approximately 123,000 students. The school district is committed to providing high quality educational opportunities that will inspire all students to acquire and use the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a global economy, and culturally diverse world.
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