Santa Rosa County Schools Used as National Model for Excellence
PUBLISHED SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2003
by Carmen Paige
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
Professors from Harvard University and Northeastern University want to take an in-depth look at what makes the Santa Rosa County School District successful, particularly when it comes to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
"This particular district has performed excellently academically over the last five or six years and has sustained a superior performance," said Ralph Edwards, a visiting associate professor in Northeastern's School of Education.
"There's a lot of theory going around on how to improve school districts, and here's one that is performing. We believe (Santa Rosa) can teach how to succeed and sustain success over a period of time."
Edwards and Charles V. Willie, professor emeritus in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, want to do a case study on the district and are working to get funding through public and private sources. School Board members have approved the case study, which they will get to review before it is published, said Superintendent John W. Rogers.
"I'm hoping we can take a look at the district in-depth before someone else does," Edwards said. "We are aware others know about Santa Rosa, and it will be just a matter of time."
On the 2002 FCAT, Santa Rosa students in grades 6-9 ranked first in the state on all five sections: reading, math, writing, the Sunshine State Standards portion and norm-referenced test. Grade 10 was first on all sections except writing. Grades 3 and 4 were first in reading and math on the norm-referenced test. Grade 3 was first on the Sunshine State Standards portion in reading.
The professors visited the district more than a year ago as part of a project for the Florida Department of Education on student assignments. They were looking at Flor! id! a school districts, such as Gadsden also, to learn why so! me schools do well, Willie said.
"Propaganda on education has the public's mind all twisted up as to how good or bad it is," Willie said. "In many respects, education was (given) a bad rap, but it has done better than many institutions in many instances.
"So, when we find a school district that is doing well, we want to know why and want to document that so others can go forth and do likewise."
Carol Williams, president of Avalon Middle School's Parent Teacher Association, said teachers are why the district is successful.
"We have the best teachers who love their kids and their jobs, and it shows," she said. "When you are in an environment like that, your kids are going to learn more."
Joyce McCorvey, Santa Rosa's director of alternative academics, said the professors have applied for a research grant through the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. She said they should know in 60 to 90 days whether it is approved.
Copyright 2003 Pensacola News-Journal.
Santa Rosa County Schools Get Straight A's ... Again!
PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2003
Santa Rosa County schools aced the state's report card, posting some of the highest grades in the state.
Florida Commissioner of Education Jim Horne released the grades for all of the state's public schools this morning.
Every Santa Rosa elementary and middle school scored an A on the report card. Three of the county's five high schools received A's and two received B's.
The news was good in Escambia County as well. Of Escambia's 33 elementary schools, 21 scored an A. That's a dramatic improvement from four years ago when the state first began ranking schools on an A-F scale. In 1999, only one elementary school posted an A.
Statewide, the number of failing public schools dropped from 64 last year to 35 this year in a grading system based on how students perform on the FCAT.
At the same time the number of schools receiving As and Bs rose from 1,447 to 1,799 this year.
Governor Jeb Bush had predicted school grades would improve after Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results released last month showed improvement at almost every grade in reading and math.
While schools' grades may be improving overall, the stakes are still high for individual schools. Students at in the state's 2,515 public schools that earn a failing grade two years out of four are eligible for vouchers to attend private school.
Last year, the F earned by 10 of the schools was their second failing grade in four years. Miami-Dade had five of those schools, Palm Beach had three and Orange and Escambia each had one.
Past trends suggest that F schools improve. When the state first started giving schools letter grades in 1999, 78 schools earned an F. That dropped to four in 2000 and none in 2001.
The jump to 64 failing schools came after the state toughened the grading formula in late 2001.
Grades are still based, in large part, on how well students perform on the FCAT, which measures reading and math in grades three through 10 and writing in grades four, eight and 10.
But under the changes made in 2001 the grading formula also takes into consideration how much each student learned over the school year and gives weight to the progress of each school's worst readers on the FCAT from year to year.
The constitutionality of the voucher law has been challenged in court by the state's teachers' union and other opponents. A trial judge last summer ruled the law unconstitutionally allowed public money to be spent to support religious schools but the ruling was appealed and the case is pending before the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Jenny LaCoste; with reporting by The Associated Press
COPYRIGHT 2003 PENSACOLA NEWS-JOURNAL
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