The Florida Department of Education has an interactive web page, knowyourdatefl.org, that compares counties on how well they did on assessment tests. The charts show the percentage of the students in grades 3,5,6-8 and 9-12 that performed on grade level or above (3 or higher) on the assessments.
Of the 29 school districts with 9,000 or more students tested, St. Johns (77.3%), Clay (71.3%), Sarasota (68.9%), and Santa Rosa (65.4%) had the highest percentages.
Escambia was in the bottom four with 50.8%, with Polk the only large district doing worse – 47.5%.
Rank | District | # Achievement 3 or above | # of Students | % Achievement |
1 | St. Johns | 11,487 | 14,863 | 77.3% |
2 | Clay | 9,569 | 13,426 | 71.3% |
3 | Sarasota | 11,788 | 17,105 | 68.9% |
4 | Santa Rosa | 7,796 | 11,920 | 65.4% |
5 | Seminole | 15,892 | 24,369 | 65.2% |
6 | Okaloosa | 7,576 | 11,790 | 64.3% |
7 | Collier | 11,441 | 18,380 | 62.2% |
8 | Leon | 5,924 | 9,819 | 60.3% |
9 | Brevard | 16,471 | 27,681 | 59.5% |
10 | Volusia | 13,792 | 23,238 | 59.4% |
11 | Bay | 5,993 | 10,154 | 59.0% |
12 | Pasco | 18,188 | 30,988 | 58.7% |
13 | Pinellas | 18,852 | 32,163 | 58.6% |
14 | Orange | 46,005 | 78,541 | 58.6% |
15 | Miami-Dade | 71,814 | 123,715 | 58.0% |
16 | Palm Beach | 40,866 | 70,636 | 57.9% |
17 | Lake | 9,584 | 16,851 | 56.9% |
18 | Manatee | 10,332 | 18,281 | 56.5% |
19 | Hillsborough | 44,981 | 80,866 | 55.6% |
20 | Alachua | 5,484 | 9,890 | 55.4% |
21 | Broward | 50,413 | 92,069 | 54.8% |
22 | Hernando | 4,899 | 9,043 | 54.2% |
23 | Duval | 23,404 | 43,317 | 54.0% |
24 | St. Lucie | 9,350 | 17,311 | 54.0% |
25 | Osceola | 14,350 | 27,543 | 52.1% |
26 | Marion | 7,850 | 15,151 | 51.8% |
27 | Lee | 19,225 | 37,744 | 50.9% |
28 | Escambia | 6,712 | 13,204 | 50.8% |
29 | Polk | 19,154 | 40,301 | 47.5% |
Pre-pandemic (2018-19), Escambia County tied Osceola for 26 with 49.9%.
Rank | District | 2018-19 |
1 | St. Johns | 78.2% |
2 | Sarasota | 69.2% |
3 | Okaloosa | 68.3% |
4 | Santa Rosa | 68.2% |
5 | Clay | 65.6% |
6 | Seminole | 64.1% |
7 | Brevard | 62.0% |
8 | Collier | 61.2% |
9 | Leon | 60.2% |
10 | Palm Beach | 59.9% |
11 | Miami-Dade | 59.6% |
12 | Bay | 59.1% |
13 | Pasco | 58.7% |
14 | Broward | 58.7% |
15 | Hernando | 57.4% |
16 | Alachua | 56.9% |
17 | Manatee | 56.7% |
18 | Pinellas | 56.2% |
19 | Lake | 56.1% |
20 | Hillsborough | 55.5% |
21 | Orange | 55.4% |
22 | Lee | 55.2% |
23 | Volusia | 54.6% |
24 | Duval | 53.7% |
25 | St. Lucie | 52.9% |
26 | Escambia | 49.9% |
26 | Osceola | 49.9% |
28 | Marion | 49.8% |
29 | Polk | 48.9% |
Wouldn’t it be nice to think that after all these years of failing our children in Escambia County this might start to change in 2024.
Instead we’ve got a Department of Education hell bent on dragging us backwards and instituting a Christian nationalist theocracy through the mission creep of their a charter and school choice programme.
Worse still, there’s no trusting any data coming out of any state agency any more, anyway, least of all anything “health” and “education” related. Pretty soon resident rocket scientist Manny Diaz will be announcing that he’s rewriting the tests and assembling new freedumb-loving scoring centers that will get rolled into the Corcoran and Cronies Cash Cow Charter Republic, making sure that our primary and secondary educatoin can’t be assessed by any reasonable measure, just like they covered up covid deaths and are in the process of destroying the integrity, brand, and allure of Florida universities and colleges by their umpteenth asinine culture war against the SAT.
Just like covid, just like gun violence, they’re going to find a way to jam the real data on school performance to their special interest ends. As far as we know, they could already be doing it.
They’ll be figuring out how to siphon the Children’s Trust money soon enough, either de facto or de jure, which sadly doesn’t make much difference with how the money’s currently being doled out by the greater majority of the Board. Just a matter of which special interest network gets their particular fingers into the taxpayer pie. And to think that prior to DeSantis, Florida’s education system state-wide had improved by leaps and bounds and was coming into its own as a really thriving academic ecosphere.
Sorry to be glum, but the situation certainly calls for it. The whole thing is a tragedy unfolding daily that so far very few local leaders have had the courage to address with any courage or honesty, let alone efficacy. Just one more thing I guess we’re all gonna sit around and wait for a miracle because the calendar flipped over while DeSantis runs around making an ass of himself vocalizing thought experiments on bombing the Bahamas.