{"id":340688,"date":"2026-07-15T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340688\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:44:09","slug":"a-grades-for-tampa-bay-schools-but-are-kids-really-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340688\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A’ grades for Tampa Bay schools, but are kids really learning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida gives its public and charter schools annual letter grades.<\/a> This year, the most ever received an A or a B.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, recent studies show students statewide are falling behind in reading and math compared to their national peers.<\/p>\n

That has some parents and experts concerned about a system that requires a score of 62% or higher for an \u201cA\u201d for elementary schools, and 64% for middle and high schools.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all based on a formula <\/a>that includes standardized test scores, learning growth, graduation rates, and accelerated course enrollments. <\/p>\n

In 2025-26, 76% of Florida public schools received A\u2019s and B\u2019s on that grade report.<\/p>\n

But Patricia Levesque,<\/a> an education policy expert who served in former Gov. Jeb Bush\u2019s administration, cautions that there\u2019s a clear disconnect between school grades and student outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve lowered the bar in our school grading scale,\u201d Levesque said. \u201cIf all schools are A’s or B’s, there’s not much positive pressure to keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Education<\/a> did not provide a formal response to multiple requests for comment for this story by deadline.<\/p>\n

State and national results tell different stories<\/p>\n

The 62% \u201cA\u201d threshold for elementary schools has been consistent since 2014, but it wasn\u2019t until 2022 that the state launched the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, or FAST.<\/a><\/p>\n

At a June press conference<\/a> in Polk County, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the 2025-26 school grades as the best year in FAST\u2019s four-year history.<\/p>\n

Districts administer the multiple-choice test three times a year, and results are a central component of the Florida Department of Education\u2019s yearly school gradebook.<\/p>\n

“Florida did not become the \u2018Education State\u2019 by accident,” DeSantis said. “We had to change the policy to embrace progress monitoring, and that was the right decision.”<\/p>\n

He announced that 60% of Florida public school students met grade-level FAST benchmarks<\/a> for English Language Arts and Mathematics.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Florida ranks last in reading, warns nationwide education report<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the most recent survey from the Education Scorecard, a Harvard-Stanford research collaborative that maps student achievement across the country, showed Florida dead last<\/a> in academic growth for reading between 2022 and 2025. <\/p>\n

Additionally, chronic absenteeism is significantly worse than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

However, Department of Education have pointed to a specific result in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which compares states in math, reading, science and writing proficiency at various grade levels. <\/p>\n

A DOE spokeswoman previously told WUSF \u201cFlorida actually outperformed the nation and ranked in the Top 10 in Grade 4 Reading performance in 2024.”<\/p>\n

A single year\u2019s result, however, doesn\u2019t show the full picture. Back in 2017, Florida ranked even higher, at 5th in the country for NAEP reading scores in Grade 4. Meanwhile, in the same period, NAEP 8th grade reading scores fell from 25th to 43rd. <\/p>\n

The average Florida student now is more than half a grade level behind their counterpart three years ago.<\/p>\n

Local results paint an “apples-to-oranges” pictures<\/p>\n

This year, Hillsborough, Pasco, Sarasota and Pinellas County School districts all earned an \u201cA; what’s more, Hillsborough and Pasco saw three of their “D” schools jump at least two levels this year. <\/p>\n

Hillsborough County Deputy Superintendent <\/a>Shaylia McRae said comparing those state and national standards is an apples-to-oranges situation, and she highlighted lower-achievement schools\u2019 monumental progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a stellar year for us,\u201d McRae said. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of everybody working together to get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

McRae credited the district\u2019s Transformation Network<\/a> for making the grade. Launched in 2020, the specialized division focuses on support plans for specific students and working to fill teacher vacancies in Hillsborough County\u2019s most consistently underperforming schools.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough also honed in on college readiness, implementing the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma<\/a> in every district high school. Students who complete the program qualify for free tuition<\/a> at some Florida public universities.<\/p>\n

Next year, though, schools will need to score between 3 and 5 points higher to get an A. Florida Statutes 1008 requires the State Board of Education to raise grading standards if 75% of schools get an \u201cA\u201d or a \u201cB\u201d in the previous year.<\/p>\n

McRae said next year\u2019s planned higher benchmarks will challenge districts to pour even more hard work in to FAST testing numbers and school grade metrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re always changing the goal post and you\u2019re always refining the standards, it makes it hard to get into a rhythm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

History, politics and education <\/p>\n

High-stakes testing has a long, controversial history in Florida. <\/p>\n

In 1976, Florida became the first state to mandate a graduation test for high schoolers. A federal lawsuit <\/a>challenged that requirement\u2019s constitutionality, but the state successfully argued if a curriculum was \u201cequitable,\u201d kids weren\u2019t entitled to a diploma.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jeb Bush went on to introduce the comparatively more rigorous Florida Comprehensive Assessment (FCAT)<\/a> in 1999. That test began tying elementary school funding and closures to student scores.<\/p>\n

After a brief alignment <\/a>with Common Core<\/a> standards in the late 2010s, the state implemented FAST in 2022. At the time, DeSantis claimed<\/a> the new system would reduce testing time by 75%, but teachers’ unions argued<\/a> it would do the opposite. <\/p>\n

“We had to change the policy to embrace progress monitoring, and that was the right decision,” DeSantis said at his June press conference. <\/p>\n

Damaris Allen is a former Hillsborough County Schools parent and current executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools.<\/a><\/p>\n

Allen observed that school grades tend to increase during election years, either due to changes in a formula<\/a> the State Board of Education uses to weigh all the school grade factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t change the actual test, but they often change how grades are done,\u201d Allen said. “The challenge is that once they start doing better, they increase the standards.”<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Students’ scores on Florida tests show benchmark improvements. National indicators aren’t as promising<\/a><\/p>\n

The head of Florida’s largest teachers’ union agrees. <\/p>\n

Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said the grades often don\u2019t align with what outside research shows about Florida public education.<\/p>\n

FEA is currently challenging<\/a> the Florida DOE\u2019s private school voucher programs<\/a> in court, contending the state disadvantages public schools through underfunding.<\/p>\n

Spar pointed out that private schools aren\u2019t subject to the same high-stakes testing requirements, which he said disrupts learning and degrades curricula.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools that receive taxpayer money through the voucher program are not required to take these assessments,\u201d Spar said. \u201cIf we\u2019re saying we need accountability, shouldn\u2019t that follow the money?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, the administration DeSantis paused funding<\/a> for the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts, which partially cover the costs of math and reading tutoring for Florida public elementary schoolers. <\/p>\n

Most recently, State Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, proposed to pilot a six-week foundational reading course for in grades K-2. The bill<\/a> died in committee.<\/p>\n

A parent’s view<\/p>\n

Kallie Roberts, a Pasco County parent, isn\u2019t so convinced the tests actually measure student success and learning progress, and she says they create unnecessary stress at a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know where they shine, and their test scores do not reflect their strengths \u2014 or their weaknesses,” Roberts said.<\/p>\n

At the end of each year, Wesley Chapel Elementary School<\/a> holds a celebration for students who \u201cleveled up\u201d from their previous FAST test scores. In 2025, Roberts\u2019 daughter, who has cerebral palsy, was two points away from meeting that mark, so she couldn\u2019t participate. Roberts said such events creates a hyper-competitive school culture where kids\u2019 seeming value comes from one end-of-year test.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Roberts\u2019 older son has dyslexia and struggles with test anxiety \u2014 previously, he scored low on FAST, but he got a 5 this year. Roberts doesn’t think that score reflects his actual reading comprehension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also don’t want him to use his test score as a reason why he doesn\u2019t need to work as hard,” Roberts said. “Changing the fast test to make Florida look better is a disservice to all the children in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damaris Allen echoed Roberts’ concerns that the structure of high-stakes testing does not accurately reflect student mastery \u2014 since teachers must tailor lessons to the three checkpoints, kids have limited ways to demonstrate knowledge and talent.<\/p>\n

“The way our state has it set up right now is to make kids really good at gathering information and regurgitating it,\u201d Allen said. \u201cWe have sacrificed a lot in the name of testing. How are they falling in love with reading literature if they never actually get to hold a book? They just have to read a blurb on a screen.”<\/p>\n

Allen acknowledged the hard work that went in these rankings, but she cautioned against too much optimism about the Florida government’s investment in public education.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur schools are consistently doing more with less,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida gives its public and charter schools annual letter grades. This year, the most ever received an A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-340688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}