PANHANDLE SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO BE TOPS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Another reason, our area is on the minds of the country. The quality of living continues to remain high, along with the beautiful white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle.

Local school districts rank among best on FCAT
Katie Tammen
For the fifth year in a row, Northwest Florida school districts rank among the best in the state.

Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton County schools each received an A grade overall for the performance of their elementary and middle schools on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

“I’m very proud of our schools,” said Okaloosa County Superintendent Alexis Tibbetts. “I don’t think people realize the true gem that we have in this school district.”

School grades were developed in 1999 to help keep the public informed about their performance. The grades are based on the results of the FCAT.

Of the 29 elementary and middle schools in Okaloosa County 24 received A’s and five received B’s. In Walton County, eight schools received A’s and the remaining two earned a B and a C. Santa Rosa schools received 15 A’s, four B’s and one C.

“We revel in the success of our staff and our children, and I just applaud our principals because they do such a good job,” said Walton County Superintendent Carlene Anderson.

The Florida Department of Education released the school grades Friday afternoon. That was about a month later than expected because of several hiccups with the FCAT, including a database error with the company that was scoring the tests.

After the database was corrected and FCAT scores were ready to be released, several superintendents from across the state asked the DOE in mid-July to hold off after school officials noticed anomalies in fourth-and fifth-grade reading scores.

One red flag was students who scored a 4 or 5 on the written portion of the test received a 2 or 3 in reading.

Corrections were made, and Education Commissioner Eric Smith said earlier this week that he was confident the scores were accurate.

Some superintendents remain skeptical after 33 percent of all elementary schools in Florida dropped a letter grade or two compared to last year.

In Walton County, Anderson said she and her staff were surprised to see that Freeport Elementary School received a grade of C.

“When we ran the figures with our schools, that’s not (the grade) we got,” Anderson said.

Tibbetts said she was suspicious after discovering that one out of every three schools in the county went down a letter grade.

“That is a huge anomaly that has never happened before,” she said.

High school grades will be released in November. State education officials will use factors such as graduation rates to calculate each school’s overall grade.