School grades are out for 2024. Here's how Leon County Schools fared
The Leon County School District is just three points shy of an A grade, according to the Florida Department of Education's assessment of the state's public-school districts for the 2023-24 school year.
“While there is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, we know we are on the right track,” Leon Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna said Wednesday. “There were tremendous learning gains made at our schools, and we remain focused on the mission at hand. We will continue to uplift and support our wonderful school leaders and our amazing classroom teachers.”
Of the 49 schools in the district, 91% earned a score of a C or higher. And Nims Middle School scored a B for the first time in its 66-year history.
Last year, the school district had difficulty analyzing learning gains from test scores. In school grades for previous years, learning gains were calculated into school grades to account for higher averages on state assessments each year. Last year, they could not be calculated due to new benchmark standards and the new assessments.
The Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) was implemented last year as a "progress monitoring" style of testing for voluntary prekindergarten students through 10th grade in English language arts and for VPK through 8th grade for math.
Here's how the schools fared
The Public-School Report Card is an interactive database that lets parents and others see how their communities’ schools are performing (school grades and standardized test scores) and explore the gender and racial demographics of staff and students.
Here are the highlights for Leon County:
No Fs: For the sixth year in a row, there were no failing schools in the district.
These schools received an A:
Buck Lake, Chiles High, Deerlake Middle, DeSoto Trail, Gilchrist, Hawks Rise, Killearn Lakes Elementary, Roberts, SAIL High, Swift Creek and Montford Middle all maintained A grades for the 2023-24 school year from 2022-23.
Pineview Elementary made a momentous jump to an A from a C last year.
These schools showed improvement:
Augusta Raa Middle School and Fairview Middle School leveled up from a C to a B grade. Oak Ridge Elementary School moved up from a D last year, to a C this year.
Nims Middle School scored a B, an improvement from an "incomplete" last year.
These schools will be removed from the district's accountability, or probationary list:
Astoria Park, Hartsfield and Springwood elementary schools moved up from a D to a C this year.
Five schools received an 'I' or incomplete:
Bond Elementary School
Griffin Middle School
Amos P. Godby High School
James S. Rickards High School
Leon High School
District spokesperson Chris Petley said this may be because those schools fell short of the threshold of 95% of students testing for state assessments. District staff will work with the state to get the score resolved. He said the May 10 tornadoes disrupted the district's testing schedule, which could possibly account for the inconclusive result.
Two schools received a D:
Sabal Palm Elementary and the Ft. Braden K-8 school slipped from C to D.
Charter schools:
The School of Arts and Sciences on Thomasville Road continues to be the district's only A charter school, while its counterpart, School of Arts and Sciences at Centre slipped from a B to a C.
Tallahassee School of Math and Sciences dropped from a B to a C.
Renaissance Academy earned a C after getting a D last year.
Tallahassee Classical School received a C.
Research Schools:
Florida A&M University's Developmental Research School maintained a C.
Florida State University School maintained an A.
Compare to last year: School grades for 2023 are out: Here's how Leon County Schools fared
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County school district gets B from state, no failing schools
