School District of Lee County remains an ‘A’ district
Fourteen of the 53 schools in the Lee County School District which received an “A” grade for the 2010-2011 school year were Cape Coral schools.
More than 90 percent of schools received an “A” or “B” grade for the 2010-2011 school year, which is the first in the district’s history.
For the third straight year the Lee County School District achieved an “A” grade for its districtwide achievement by earning 537 points. An “A” grade is awarded for 525 points.
The district’s score placed it as the 20th highest in the state among 67 districts and second highest out of the nine largest districts in Florida.
“As I prepare to leave the Superintendent’s position, this is the last in a long line of outstanding accomplishments by our students, teachers and schools in the 2010-2011 school year,” interim Superintendent Dr. Lawrence Tihen said in a prepared statement. “I feel very confident that our new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Burke, is inheriting an academically sound district and that he will continue leading it on a path of success.”
In 1999, the Florida Department of Education began issuing school grades by using the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as its primary instrument.
The first year the grading system was used 34 schools in the district received a “C,” nine received an “A,” eight received a “D,” five received a “B” and one school received an “F.”
Improvements were made to the grading system in 2002, when the Florida Department of Education decided to add student learning gains, along with measuring if improvements were made in specific areas on an annual basis with the lowest performing students.
The “A” and “B” schools began to outnumber the “C” schools in 2002, with 22 schools in the district earning an “A” and 20 earning a “B” grade. Thirteen schools in the district earned a “C” that year.
For elementary and middle schools to be considered an “A” school they had to earn 525 points or more.
The two schools in the Lee County School District to achieve the most points were The Sanibel School, which earned 692 points, and Cape Elementary School, which earned 670 points.
The elementary and middle school points are calculated by the percentage of students who earned a three or higher on their reading, math, writing and science FCAT test. The second portion of the grading system takes the percentage of students who made learning gains in reading and math FCAT scores. The last section grades the progress of the lowest 25 percent of students in reading and math FCAT scores.
The schools which received a “B” grade had to earn between 495 and 524 points, which was achieved by 14 schools in the district. Mariner Middle School was the only “B” school in Cape Coral.
“Once again our students, teachers and schools have risen to the occasion,” Chief Academic Officer Dr. Constance Jones said in a prepared statement. “We’ve seen some fluctuation in the grades earned by some schools, so as we have done in years past, we’ll work to determine what we can do to help those schools. We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication shown by our principals and teachers — a job well done.”
Six schools in the district received a “C” grade due to an achievement of 435 to 494 points. No schools in Cape Coral received a “C” grade for the 2010-2011 school year.
There were no “D” schools in the district.
The only school in the Lee County School District to receive an “F” grade is Lee Charter Academy for earning below 395 points. Previously the Fort Myers school had received an “A” grade since the 2007-2008 school year.
The high school grades are still pending for the 2010-2011 school year.
To see a complete listing of the school grades visit www.leeschools.net.