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published: Friday, June 26, 2009
HITTING THE BOOKS
Lake County school officials reflect on FCAT scores
LARRY ELL
Staff Writer
When it comes to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, students may take the exam, but everybody shares in the grade.
And this year, Lake County Schools saw that grade slip a bit.
By a margin of only three points, the district dropped from an "A" to a "B". Not enough to sound the alarm bells, but enough to spur administrators to redouble their efforts to get back on top.
"We're very proud of the progress our school district has made and we will be looking very carefully at our data," said School Superintendent Susan Moxley. "Three points slipping to a 'B' was certainly a disappointment, but we will be working very diligently to address the areas that dropped."
The overall picture was mostly good news, especially among elementary and middle schools. Of the 23 elementary schools in the Lake County system, 17 received "A's" and six got "B's". The same level of achievement was seen from the county's middle schools, where seven were "A" rated and two were "B" rated. Moxley used two examples of schools that fought hard to raise their game. She said Beverly Shores Elementary in Leesburg and Triangle Elementary in Mount Dora both improved from "C's" last year to "A's" this year.
Unfortunately, the news was not as good at the high school level. Only Tavares High earned a "B" rating, holding onto the same grade it received last year. Mount Dora and East Ridge high schools both got "C's" and South Lake, Eustis, Umatilla and Leesburg were "D" rated schools.
"We are very much in tune to what is going on in our high schools," Moxley said. "We will be putting a plan of action together immediately to address where our shortfalls are."
Lake County is not alone in seeing its high schools struggle. Moxley said it's a trend indicative of a significant statewide drop.
