COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL IN NICEVILLE NAMED BEST IN FLORIDA

Okaloosa County School District does it again. Excellence found once again in our local school district. Great job folks.

Collegiate High School named best in Florida
Ruckel, Seaside middle schools are ranked in the Top 10
By KATIE TAMMEN
Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4440 ktammen@nwfdailynews.com  
Several local schools are among the best in Florida, according to rankings released this week by the state Department of Education. Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College was the top high school in the state, and Seaside Neighborhood School and Ruckel Middle School were ranked in the Top 10 middle schools. The school-by-school rankings were released Monday, about a week after the DOE released a similar ranking for all 67 school districts in Florida. It’s the first year the state has released a breakdown of school and district rankings. The rankings for elementary and middle schools were based solely on FCAT scores. The high school rankings combined FCAT scores with other components, including graduation rates and participation and performance in advanced level courses. For Ruckel Middle School Principal Debra Goolsby, the No. 10 ranking came as a welcome surprise that confirmed what she already had seen by comparing this year’s scores to last year’s. “When you’re a high performing school, it is really difficult to show gains,” she said. “But to go from 91 to 97 percent of your eighth graders showing growth in one year is nothing short of amazing.” Goolsby said her school of 930 students is able to see that kind of improvement from one year to another because teachers work with students individually and parents play a hands-on role. “We have a great community with great parents and students who are highly motivated,” she said. “The teachers are extremely dedicated to showing learning gains with every student.” Collegiate Principal Anthony Boyer said a similar team approach is why his school consistently ranks near or at the top year after year. The school, which selects students through an application lottery system, had a 100 percent graduation rate last year and extremely high FCAT scores, thanks to support from both teachers and parents. “I think it’s a team effort,” Boyer said. “It really is.” He didn’t discount the efforts of students, either. “Our students are high achievers,” Boyer said. “They work hard.” At Seaside, Principal Cathy Brubaker also gave credit to students, teachers and parents for the school’s high ranking. “I didn’t anticipate third place, but I knew we’d be pretty high,” said Brubaker, who added that her eighth grade students had the second highest math scores overall on the FCAT. The charter school in Walton County has 116 middle school students, but only about 18 of them have been identified as gifted, Brubaker said. “We really have a good mix of students,” she said. She said her school also uses local professionals to help show students how what they are learning applies to real life. Almost all other schools in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties were ranked in the top half of the state. Of the nine schools ranked in the lower half, district officials citied socio-economic issues as part of the reason for the lower scores. “Many of those students aren’t exposed to a lot of technology … and reading and engagement in academics at home,” said Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts. Walton County Superintendent Carlene Anderson said issues not reflected in the rankings also played a role in at least one of her district’s lower-ranked schools. Walton Middle School was placed in the combination school category because of a dropout prevention program the district established there. Students who had failed eighth grade the previous year were put in an accelerated program designed to get them back to grade level. This ended up classifying the school differently and dropped it significantly in the rankings, Anderson said. The district plans to continue the program next year, but has put in a request to reclassify the school as a regular middle school, Anderson said. Overall, she said she was pleased with how students performed. “This is excellent,” Anderson said. “I’m very happy with how far we have come.” In the school district rankings released last week, Walton County was 17th, Okaloosa was sixth and Santa Rosa was second out of 67 school districts.