Polk Schools' state test results mixed. Elementary math sees 3 percentage point bump

The state Department of Education released results this week for students in Polk County Schools, showing mixed results for their collective performance on the statewide Florida Standard Assessments in reading, writing and math.

The best performance came from students in grades third through fifth in the math FSA, DOE data shows.

School grades are anticipated to be released by the state at a future time, a district press release on Thursday said. Schools such as Griffin Elementary will be closely watched by the district, as the school has been struggling with scores of D's and F's since 2012.

"Regarding school closures, the only school that could possibly face closure is Griffin Elementary, though we don’t expect that to happen," said Kyle Kennedy, a district senior analyst for media relations.

If Griffin Elementary is not able to earn a C or higher this year, the district will select the closure option, he said.

"Students would be reassigned to higher performing schools and monitored for three years. Griffin Elementary would then undergo a phased transformation into a STEM or STEAM magnet academy that will not have an attendance boundary zone and would be open to all students," he said.

Kennedy said the district is "confident in the hard work of Griffin's students, teachers and staff," and a consultant, Educational Directions, has been supporting efforts to improve the school's performance.

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In charts released by the state, student exam grades were assigned a score from 1 to 5 for their achievement levels on the FSA assessments with 5 being the highest. Based on that scoring range, the state DOE reports the percentage of students per district scoring at a level of 3 or higher.

Students with a score below a level 3 may need help catching up in the fall. But school administrators use multiple metrics to determine advancement and class placements and for strategies to help them attain grade-level achievement on the next round of annual assessments.

This will be the last year for the FSA. Its replacement will be a new progress monitoring system that has yet to be released by DOE, but it will mean changes to the way students, schools and districts are assessed in the future. 

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Each year, teacher evaluations can be impacted by their students’ performances on the FSA assessments. Still, teacher evaluation criteria can vary from district to district.

Schools and districts are also impacted by student performance, when schools repeatedly garner D's and F's.

In addition to raw data showing 2022 scores, the state produces tables to compare 2021 to 2022 scores for each school district and its schools.

Generally in those charts, Polk County Schools were in the bottom half of school districts in Florida in reading, writing and math. Polk is not alone as few schools statewide broke the 50 percentile for students scoring a level 3 or above.

In year over year comparisons for reading and writing, the DOE reported that overall Polk school grades three to 10 stayed the same on the English language arts exam – a combined reading and essay writing assessment – with 43% achieving at least a level 3 on that FSA assessment.

In the ELA data, however, Polk's ninth- and 10th-graders improved their scores, with students scoring a 3 or higher increasing from 39% to 41%, but they remained below the district average.

Third grade to fifth grade scores

Students in third grade to fifth grade also saw a 2 percentage point increase in test scores, going from 44% to 46% from 2021 to 2022, respectively.

A decline of 2% occurred in ELA scores for sixth through eighth grade students.

In math scores, grades three to eight rose one percentage point to 44% year over year, with the biggest jump coming from students in third through fifth grades, who went from 44% in 2021 to 47% in 2022, an increase of three percentage points in a single school year.

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Sixth grade to eighth grade scores

Sixth-grade to eighth-grade scores were flat, staying the same for 2022 at 41% achieving a level 3 on the exam.

The math scores are a combination of grades from the FSA and End of Course exams. Scores for middle and high schools are in subjects such as geometry and algebra. The full report can be found here:  https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/results/2022.stml 

“Despite the many challenges over the past two years, our schools were able to achieve gains and maintain their progress in some subjects,” said Superintendent Frederick Heid.

“There is still much work to do, but we are proud of our students, teachers and staff for overcoming so many obstacles and giving their full effort for these assessments.”

FLDOE results, the district also highlighted several areas with the DOE results, including students taking the FSA Algebra 1 end-of-course exam showed year-to-year improvement, with 41% scoring a 3 or better, up from 37% the prior year.

Also, 37% of students earned a 3 or higher on the FSA Geometry end-of-course exam, up from 33% the year prior.

In the science scores, 37% of fifth-grade students scored 3 or higher on the assessment, down from 39% in 2021. While 36% of eight-grade students scored 3 or higher on the Science assessment, down from 39% in 2021.

The biology results showed 52% of students taking the end-of-course exam scored 3 or higher, which was unchanged from a year ago.

The U.S. history data showed 54% of students taking the end-of-course exam scored 3 or better, down from 55% in 2021. And 67% of students taking the FSA civics end-of-course exam scored a 3 or better, up from 63% in 2021.

In the news release Thursday, the Florida Department of Education said student achievement gaps across the state were narrowed for minority students.

“African American students, students from economically disadvantaged families, and Hispanic students had gains on all Mathematics and ELA metrics,” the DOE said.

“Every child deserves access to the best possible education available, regardless of income or background,” said Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. in the release.

The performance for all student subgroups increased or stayed the same at a score of 3 and above in ELA and mathematics compared with 2021, the DOE said.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County Schools FSA test scores released