(The Center Square) – The Florida Department of Education released its accountability scores for individual public schools and districts on Monday and no school district received a failing score.
Grades for individual schools were also up, as the number of A-rated schools increased from 38% in 2024 to 44% this year and the number of failing schools decreased from 117 to 71, a decrease of 39.3%.
It marked the third year for Florida’s progress monitoring, which continually assesses student and school performance throughout the school year rather than with one end of the year test.
“I think the progress monitoring reform was the right reform to do,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at an event at Oceanway Elementary School in Jacksonville, which improved from a C to an A. “I think it is providing dividends, but we all say we have more work to do.”
Only 71 out of Florida’s 3,451 public schools (2.05%) received a failing grade (a D or an F), with 44% of them receiving an A and 27% received a B.
There were only 49 elementary, six middle and only two high schools that received unsatisfactory scores. A scores were awarded to 49% of high schools (250), 42% of middle schools (237) and 40% of the state’s elementaries (717).
Of the state’s combined schools, 322 (55%) earned top ratings and only 14 received failing marks.
For districts, 28 scored an A, 31 received a B and only eight received a C.
Florida Department of Education Commissioner-designate Anastasios Kamoutsas, who replaced Manny Diaz Jr., spotlighted the improvement in civics education with 70% of Florida students on grade level in that subject.
“Florida schools are improving across the board, and this is a direct result of the governor’s innovative policies and his mandate to school board members and superintendents across the state to bring education back to the basics and focus on student success,” Kamoutsas said. “Indoctrination, whether it’s critical race theory or sexually explicit materials, has no place in Florida schools.”
Diaz is now the interim president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
The state Department of Education uses 12 components to assess individual school performance, which include achievement components, learning gains, middle school acceleration, graduation rate and college and career acceleration.
