TAVARES — The number of Lake County schools earning A grades nearly doubled under the state’s accountability system this year, as three campuses attained the highest mark for the first time, data released in June by the Florida Department of Education show.
Eustis Heights Elementary, Carver Middle and Mount Dora Middle each garnered their first top grades since the state began handing them out seven years ago — a feat only 33 other Florida campuses accomplished this June.
In all, 21 Lake schools merited an A, up from 12 last year — representing 54 percent of the district’s campuses, or 1 percentage point higher than the state average.
Six of the district’s middle schools bumped their grades up to the best classification.
The school system, however, had a smaller share of B’s and proportionally more C’s than the state did overall. Only six Lake campuses earned the second-highest grade this year, or 15 percent of district schools — compared with nearly a quarter statewide. Ten received a C, or 26 percent of schools districtwide, while only a fifth of all Florida campuses warranted the average mark.
The uneven performance largely stems from the number of B schools that boosted their grade a notch this year, while the number of C schools mostly held steady.
Two Lake high schools landed a D this year: Leesburg earned its fourth consecutive one, while Umatilla fell from a C for the first time. No district campus failed state standards.
School Board Chairman Jimmy Conner was excited to see for the first time more than half of the district’s schools attaining an A.
“That is an incredible achievement. It is a tribute to our teachers, students and principals,” Conner said this summer. “We need to target the C schools now and implement a game plan to help them become a B.”
The state determines grades using a point system based on the percentage of students who pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in reading, math and writing, and who show significant learning gains in reading and math. Schools also earn points when students scoring in the bottom quarter on the FCAT improve their reading skills.
Campuses can be knocked down from an A to a B or a C to a D if fewer than half of their struggling students do better in reading from one year to the next.
Four Lake schools barely missed achieving higher marks under the state grading system this year.
Eustis Elementary earned enough points for an A but had less than half of its low-scoring students show enough improvement in reading, so the state gave it a B. Oak Park Middle missed the top grade by a single point.
Beverly Shores Elementary, meanwhile, fell short of obtaining a B by only two points.
Umatilla High could have received a C, but only 45 percent of its bottom-quartile students boosted their reading scores to the degree required by the state, so Florida officials gave it a D.
The three Lake schools that earned an A for the first time — Eustis Heights Elementary, Carver Middle and Mount Dora Middle — overcame tough demographic challenges to help their students do well.
At Eustis Heights, 67 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-priced meals, and one-fifth are disabled. The news of an A was greeted by staff with relief and pleasure, Principal Mollie Cunningham said. The custodian immediately grabbed the ladder to tout the accomplishment on the school’s marquee, and employees cranked up the phone tree to tell parents, she said.
Cunningham attributed her school’s success to ensuring that all students with disabilities were included in classes that taught the regular curriculum. She also used federal money for poor children to hire teaching coaches in reading, math, science and writing.
The coaches met with teachers in each grade level once a month, she said, to target struggling students and develop new strategies to help them improve.
Cunningham added that a new math program this year that better aligned lessons to the skills being tested on the FCAT also contributed to student success.
“We worked hard,” Cunningham said.
At Carver Middle, 53 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-priced meals. Principal Linda Shepherd said three teams of teachers grouped by grade level, subject matter and common students met monthly to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the children’s performance on class tests.
All students who did not pass the FCAT last year were placed in intensive reading and math courses, she said.
This coming year, she said, smaller teams of teachers will meet weekly to go over student test scores and pinpoint ways to improve achievement.
“Even though we knew we were working hard and doing a good job, it is nice to know that everybody else will know it, too,” Shepherd said. “Now that we have that status, we need to maintain it and grow.”
At Mount Dora Middle, 49 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-priced meals. Principal Kelly Sanders credited the excellent showing this year to teamwork — students, teachers, staff and parents coming together to work hard. He also praised parents and the community.
Setting high expectations and creating a positive learning environment also were key, Sanders said.
This coming year, the school will pilot a math program that separates boys and girls into different math classes. At each grade level, one class of boys and one class of girls will take the subject with students of the same gender. Research has shown, he said, that middle-school girls do not feel pressure to dumb down their abilities, and boys avoid acting up as much when they do not share courses with girls.
The school also will continue focusing on the individual needs of each child.
“Not all kids can learn at the same time and on the same day, but they can learn,” Sanders said.
