Florida school grades: Volusia, Flagler earn Bs, while St. Johns keeps its A streak going

Volusia and Flagler schools each earned Bs, while the St. Johns County district kept its straight-A performance on the Florida Department of Education's district grading scale released Thursday.

This is the first time in three years grades were released, having been skipped in 2020 because of the pandemic's disruption. Grades were assigned only to districts that opted into the program in 2021.

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The last time the grades were released, in 2019, Flagler County Schools earned its first A. Volusia County Schools earned a B.

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St. Johns County opted into the 2021 grades and earned an A, as it had every year since 2010.

This will be the final year schools are graded under the current system because Gov. Ron DeSantis has steered the Florida Department of Education to adopt a new progress monitoring program.

Volusia County

Having been through a year that saw the dismissal of one superintendent, Scott Fritz, and the arrival of a new one, Carmen Balgobin, Volusia County Schools maintained a B, in no small part because of a jump in the graduation rate from 79% to 92% in three years.

"Despite the challenges of COVID, I'm glad to see the hard work or our teachers and the administration pay off," said School Board Chair Ruben Colón. "Dr. Balgobin and the district staff are going through the data now and starting to determine where the opportunities are (for improvement)."

Among the highlights for Volusia: Chisholm and Longstreet elementary schools went from C grades three years ago to As in 2022.  Volusia Pines Elementary got a C in 2019 and if it had been graded in 2021, it would have been a D school. It jumped to a B in 2022.

Rachel Hazel, deputy superintendent of teaching, leading and learning, said 43% of Volusia County schools earned an A or B grade.

“If you look at the different components, we went up in every component with the exception of two,” Hazel said. “That means we’re making some pretty good strides in meeting our students’ needs, especially over the last three years, which have provided some of the most unique challenges I have seen, and I have been in education for more than 20 years.”

All three schools that had previously been rated D — Palm Terrace, Champion and Westside elementary schools — were brought up to a C.

However, seven Volusia County Schools fell to D scores: Blue Lake, Orange City, Pierson, Turie T. Small, Sunrise and Pride elementary schools and Campbell Middle School.

No Volusia County high school earned an A.

DeLand and Pine Ridge high schools, New Smyrna Beach Middle and Beachside Elementary all received incomplete grades and will go through an appeals process, Colón said. Hazel said the district is reviewing why grades for those schools were incomplete and what can be done to get them.

Flagler County

Three Flagler schools earned As in 2022: Old Kings Elementary, up from a B in 2019; and Belle Terre Elementary and Indian Trails Middle, which maintained A grades from 2019.

No Flagler school fell below a C.

LaShakia Moore, the district's new assistant superintendent for academic services, said educators faced challenges not only with the pandemic, but also with challenges in hiring staff.

"Our first response to the data is excitement about the work they did. ... Really a thankfulness to overcome some of the challenges we have," Moore said. "We definitely have work to still do."

Flagler County finished just three points below an A grade. Moore said officials in Flagler are confident they can improve on the new assessments next year.

St. Johns County

Wayne King, associate superintendent of accountability and intervention services at St. Johns County Schools, described how the district has been able to maintain A grades through the years.

"I think a lot of it is we do have a very rigorous approach to recruitment and retention of teachers," King said. "Also the training we provide our teachers, in terms of benchmarks, I believe is really good."

As St. Johns is one of the state's fastest-growing counties, being able to continue quality hiring will be a challenge.

The curriculum team's intervention strategies for students who aren't performing well earlier in the school year have also helped St. Johns schools earn high marks, King said.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida releases school grades: Volusia, B; Flagler, B; St. Johns, A