In Palm Beach County, A and B schools — no ‘failure factories’

Each year, the Florida Department of Education releases grades for every traditional public and charter school in Florida. The foundation of these grades is student performance and learning gains on the Florida Standards Assessment tests given each year, starting with students in the third grade.

We know that grades don’t tell our school district’s whole story, and that they show just a snapshot of what’s happening in our schools every day. However, we still want to celebrate our success. I’m proud of our accomplishments this school year, and we should all be proud of what we’ve done as a community.

Palm Beach County is the highest performing large, urban school district in Florida, a notable achievement considering the great work being done by students in public school districts throughout our state. This accomplishment would not be possible without our outstanding teachers, and the leadership of principals in our schools.

Here are the highlights from our school district’s report card from the Florida Department of Education:

Thirty schools operated by the Palm Beach County School District improved by at least one letter grade.

Three schools increased their grades by two or more letter grades — Washington Elementary had the largest gain; an F to a B.

Sixty-three schools earned As and 35 schools earned Bs, accounting for 61 percent of district-operated schools.

No district-operated school in Palm Beach County received an F this year.

Let me stress that last point: No district-operated school received an F this year. At a time when politicians in Tallahassee are referring to public schools as “failure factories,” not one of our district-operated schools received a failing grade from the Florida Department of Education.

Obviously, there is work to be done. District reading scores for our English Language Learners lags behind other urban districts and overall scores for student reading need to be accelerated.

Improving students’ reading performance is an important priority for me and for the school district. One of the key outcomes of our fiveyear strategic plan is that 75 percent of thirdgraders are reading on grade level by third grade.

Parents, you can help us achieve this goal by encouraging reading at home — every bit helps. Even those in the community who don’t have children in our schools can serve an important role through volunteering in our classrooms or contributing to efforts that promote literacy in Palm Beach County.

I encourage you to visit our district website, palmbeachschools.org, to learn more about our five-year strategic plan, and how you can get involved in our schools. You can also find stories that highlight student achievement, innovative programs in our schools, and the excellent work by our teachers and employees who are the real authors of our continuing success story.

Sixty-three schools earned As and 35 schools earned Bs.