The Leon County School Board gathered on July 14, 2026, to celebrate what officials described as a historic academic milestone. According to data released by the Florida Department of Education, the district has reached its highest performance level in ten years and is currently just 0.25 points away from an overall \u201cA\u201d grade.<\/p>\n
During a comprehensive presentation, David Solz, Director of School Improvement and Accountability, reported that Leon County saw proficiency increases across every core subject area. English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency rose by 4% district-wide, while math scores saw a significant 5-point gain in grades 3-5. Science scores were particularly strong, increasing by 5 points across all levels and placing the district 7 points above the state average in Biology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never been more proud of our school district,\u201d said Superintendent Rocky Hanna, noting the achievements of staff and students alike. \u201cWe\u2019re point twenty-five. Point 25 away from an A\u201d.<\/p>\n
The individual school results were equally striking, with 85% of schools (33 out of 39) either maintaining or improving their letter grade. The district now boasts 28 schools rated \u201cA\u201d or \u201cB,\u201d the highest number since 2012. Notable highlights included:<\/p>\n
Bond Elementary earned the first \u201cA\u201d in the school\u2019s history, with historic growth for its bottom 25% of students (88% in reading and 90% in math).<\/p>\n
Fairview Middle School jumped from a \u201cC\u201d to an \u201cA\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cobb Middle School and Sealy Elementary both secured \u201cA\u201d ratings.<\/p>\n
Griffin and Oak Ridge successfully exited \u201cDifferentiated Accountability\u201d status.<\/p>\n
Board members attributed the success to \u201cintentional investments,\u201d particularly in early learning and the introduction of the UFLI reading program. Board Member Jones remarked, \u201cThe proof has been in the pudding,\u201d while highlighting the \u201cfull evolution\u201d of the district\u2019s budget investments in student preparation.<\/p>\n
Comparing Leon County to similarly sized districts, Board Member Wood highlighted that Leon\u2019s 72% performance metric significantly outpaced Alachua (59%), Bay (68%), and Escambia (63%). \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of comparison we need to be making right there,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n
Board Member Smith added that the data serves as a powerful marketing tool for public education. \u201cNo matter what area of town you live in\u2026 you\u2019re going to be successful in Leon County Schools,\u201d Smith noted. Superintendent Hannah concluded that the district would \u201cscream it from the mountain tops\u201d to ensure the community recognizes these historic gains .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Leon County School Board gathered on July 14, 2026, to celebrate what officials described as a historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-354870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354870","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=354870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}