The final school-wide grades of the 2010-11 school year are in. Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School both scored a B, same as the previous year, even though they had the numbers to be rated A schools.
The high schools’ grade does not affect the district’s overall grade, which remains an A for the fourth year in a row.
Florida Department of Education’s rules, constantly changing, are such that despite overall high numbers, including on FCAT scores, both the county’s traditional high schools were docked a letter grade because of the poor graduation rate of so-called at-risk students–students who entered 9th grade with math and reading levels at 1 or 2 on the 5-level scale of the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test.
The school is required to have at least 75 percent of the students in that group make it to graduation. The rate is set to ensure that the schools devote particular attention to students at the lower end of the achievement scale. FPC managed to graduate only 66 percent of the students in that group. Matanzas managed 71 percent.
Except for some mitigating circumstances, students who score less than a 3 on reading in their 10th grade FCAT in order to graduate. They may retake the exam in 11th and 12th grade.
In the rest of the district, Flagler’s five traditional elementary schools and its two middle schools all got A’s except for Bunnell Elementary, which got a B.
Imagine School at Town Center, a charter school, dropped to a C, from an A the previous year. Heritage Academy, a K-12 school, got another F, as it did the previous year.
Below is a breakdown of all the district’s school grades since 1999.
Flagler County School Grades
| 1999 | 2000 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bunnell Elementary | C | B | C | C | A | A | A | B | B | A | A | B | B |
| Belle Terre Elementary | A | A | A | A | A | A | |||||||
| Old Kings Elementary | C | A | B | A | A | B | A | A | A | A | A | B | A |
| Rymfire Elementary | B | A | B | C | A | ||||||||
| Wadsworth Elementary | B | B | C | A | A | A | A | A | B | A | B | B | A |
| Indian Trails(*) | B/A | B/B | B/C | A | A | A | B | A | A | A | A | A | A |
| Buddy Taylor Middle | C | A | A | A | A | B | B | A | A | A | A | A | A |
| Flagler Palm Coast High School | C | C | C | B | B | D | C | B | C | A | D | B | B |
| Matanzas High School | C | D | A | B | B | B | |||||||
| Charter Schools | |||||||||||||
| Imagine | D | A | C | ||||||||||
| Palm Harbor | NA | NA | |||||||||||
| Cornerstone Academy (**) | D | B | C | C | |||||||||
| Summit Academy (**) | C | C | NA | B | |||||||||
| Heritage Academy (**) | F | F |
(**) Cornerstone, Summit and Heritage belong o the same company, and were merged into a single K-12 school in 2010.
Anita says
Everyone seems to be complaining about the quality of education in public schools, but the charter schools appear to be doing even more poorly. Why would anyone send their kids to charter schools?
Anonymous says
And that is why homeschooling has become so popular.
Anita says
Anonymous, that still depends on the qualifications, dedication and stamina of the homeschool teacher (s). Why not work to improve existing public schools instead of trying to re-invent the wheel?