Hernando schools rank in state’s bottom half
BROOKSVILLE –
State officials have ranked the best and worst school districts in the state on student achievement — and Hernando County isn’t even in the top 30.
According to the Florida Department of Education, Hernando ranks 38th out of 67 districts — tying Hillsborough and Osceola counties.
Nearby Pasco County ranked 34th, while Citrus County ranked 14th.
The rankings are based on how districts performed on the annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in reading, math, science and writing. Overall, the district earned a grade of a “B,” down one letter grade from the previous year.
According to an FDOE news release, the rankings are part of an effort to “help parents of school-age children, educators, and taxpayers in Florida evaluate their school districts.”
Hernando County Schools Superintendent Bryan Blavatt said the rankings and methods used to create the list do nothing of the sort.
“The rankings are useless. They don’t serve any purpose for us because all this is, is a comparison on how we compare in a snapshot — basically one test at one time with other districts across the state,” Blavatt said. “It doesn’t even tell us what the trends are. Are they moving up or down? Then you have to take into consideration that the FCAT and how they grade it changes annually. It really is a dubious measurement.”
He added that the list mainly can be used as another tool to pit school districts against one another.
If the state truly wanted to rank the districts, Blavatt said, it should use a system that takes into consideration the performance of students from various subgroups. Other socioeconomic factors should also be considered along with per-student-funding.
Hernando County ranks close to the very bottom of the list when it comes to funding received per student by the state.
“I would love to see how other districts would perform at our funding level,” Blavatt said.
The FCAT is used to give each school and the district overall an annual grade. This year the FCAT is also being used to grade teacher effectiveness in conjunction with end-of-course exams and annual evaluations.
School board Chairwoman Cynthia Moore said that overall, the FCAT does more harm than good, and that education was better off before the annual exams, adding that all it does is pressure districts to teach to the test.
“I don’t think they ought to rank school districts. All it does is put too much pressure on teachers, administrators and students,” Moore said. “They ought to let teachers teach; administrators administer and let students be students.”
However, state officials are moving forward with the ranking system and soon will create a list by school on how they rank on the FCAT.
To view the rankings list, visit http://www.fldoe.org/SchoolDistrictRanking.
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