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Rate of Growth from 1999 through 2006
(7 years of school improvement)

Parents in many Florida school districts might ask whether their school board knows how to improve educational performance at middle school and high school levels.

Scroll down to see your county's improvement at each education level. Seven years of FCAT data (1999-2006) show that few districts are able to improve student performance by even 1% per year at middle school and high school levels.

This table's color code shows at a glance each district's ability to improve for 4th grade, 8th grade and 10th grade performance over 7 years:

GREEN = average 1% improvement or more per year = best school performance
YELLOW = less than 1% improvement per year but still positive = low school performance
RED = DECLINE in student performance below 1999's level = negative (falling) school performance

In brief, 8th grade (middle school level) and 10th grade (high school level) doesn't have much green. The higher the grade, the more the picture turns red. As the grades increase, the 7-year record turns negative.

The diplomatic way to put it is Florida's middle schools and high schools have bigger issues than shown by their large numbers of A and B school grades. The less diplomatic might question the credibility of Florida's school grading system. And cynics might say...

The right columns show the total improvement over the past 7 years, and each district's state rank based on improvement (the most improved district is #1).

This table* compares data from 1999 to 2006 for 4th, 8th and 10th graders. In 1999-2001 only grades 4, 8 and 10 took the FCAT reading test. The data is for "all curriculum students" for both the 1999 and 2006 FCAT reading tests. This table lists the percent of students who read at FCAT Achievement Level 3 and above, Florida's standard definition for students who read on grade level. To see what these FCAT data mean, see Gov. Jeb Bush's letter.

Counties are in alphabetical order. The left column is only the district number assigned by Florida's Departmnt of Education.

*In 1999-2001 only grades 4, 8 and 10 took the FCAT reading test. This table compares data from "all curriculum students" from the 1999 and 2006 FCAT reading test for grades 4, 8 and 10. It lists the percent of students who read at FCAT Achievement Level 3 and above, Florida's standard definition for students who read on grade level.

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Rate of Growth from 1999 through 2006 (7 years of school improvement)

Rate of Growth from 1999 through 2006
(7 years of school improvement)