Most Collier school grades improve

Teachers at Golden Gate Middle School couldn’t believe their ears when the announcement came over the loudspeaker: GGMS was an A school.

Principal Mary Murray said several teachers were at the school teaching a reading workshop for struggling readers when she made the announcement that the school had jumped two letter grades. While students were there to work on bumping up their reading scores, not a lot of work was done after the school grade was announced Wednesday afternoon.

“I think we lost the rest of our instructional day (after the announcement) because everyone was going around squealing and celebrating,” Murray said.

More Collier County schools are making progress than not, according to school grades the Florida Department of Education issued Wednesday.

Statewide, Gov. Jeb Bush announced 75 percent of Florida’s public schools received an A or B, the most since the program began in 1999.

Twelve Collier schools jumped at least one letter grade for the 2005-06 school year, including Highlands Elementary School, which was the first A school for the Immokalee community.

“There is a lot of celebration going on,” said Highlands Elementary School principal Linda Salazar.

“There were people out there who thought we would never do this. When we jumped from a D school to a B school, people thought it was a fluke. But we have always known our kids could do it. (Our students) an incredibly bright. They, along with the teachers and parents, took up the challenge to get there.”

But it was not all good news for Collier County schools. Five schools dropped a letter grade, including Immokalee High School, which received an F grade from a D in 2004-05.

“It’s not good,” said Principal Manny Touron. “Our (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) writing score went down 16 points. Our teachers were prepared to do this, but the kids were not doing well. I can’t tell you exactly what we are going to do and how we are going to do things differently, but we will be using the summer to analyze and work with (district officials) to improve.”

School grades are determined on a point system. A school earns one point for each percentile of students who score high on the annual FCAT. They also earn one point for each percentile of students who show learning gains in reading or math skills. Extra weight is given to improvement in reading skills among the lowest-performing readers in each school.

Pamela James, principal at Pinecrest Elementary School, was celebrating the school’s improvement from a D to a C Wednesday with teachers. James said there was no secret to success, but said her school improved with preparation, hard work and learning from past failures.

“It’s a motivator and incentive to know we can do it,” she said. “And even though school is out, we are starting early to prepare for next year. We are going to have a lot of new staff members next year and we want to make sure everyone is up to speed.”

The grade is given to a school on the basis of its overall points. To receive an A, a school must score 410 points or more, test at least 95 percent of eligible students, show learning gains in reading of at least half of the lowest 35 percent of reading performers and demonstrate that the learning curve of the lowest-performing quarter of students is within 10 points of the learning curve of the rest of the students.

A score of fewer than 280 points or those schools that test fewer than 90 percent of eligible students will earn the school an F grade.

Gulf Coast High School Principal Dave Stump said dropping to a B school from last year’s A grade wasn’t that big a slump. The school fell six points short of an A grade, scoring 404 points when they scored 412 in 2004-05. Stump said the focus is now on his students, not just getting back up to an A.

“To me the grade is insignificant,” Stump said. “We could’ve gotten an A and it would be a big hurrah. Instead, we got a B and now we’re working on improving our students.”

Stump said there was no significant drop in reading and math scores and Gulf Coast students did suffer slightly with their writing scores. That drop means a slight shift in focus next year as students prepare for the FCAT.

Stump said the school will not focus entirely on writing. Instead, it will carefully look at where students are having problems and address them. Teachers also will be asked to highlight writing in their classrooms.

Stump said the school will continue to focus on reading scores, since, he said, the school still has room to improve in that realm of the test.

Joe Abalos, executive director of planning and accountability for the School District, said Collier County has made significant strides. Of the 43 Collier County Public Schools graded, 22 received an A grade this year and nine received a B. Ten schools received a C, while Everglades City School received a D and Immokalee High School received an F.

Some 72 percent of the district’s schools are considered “high performing schools,” which means that they receive an A or a B. The 72 percent is an increase over 59 percent for the 2004-05 school year.

This year, 51 percent of Collier schools received an A grade, up from 45 percent last year. This is the highest percentage of A and B schools in the district since grades first were given in 1999.

“We’re optimistic,” Abalos said. “We hope this trend continues. You look at four schools in Immokalee that improved their grades. That shows we are doing something right.”

Abalos said the district was still analyzing the data from the school grades, but said the district would be working with the schools that showed significant improvement to develop a plan to support all schools to make the same strides.

He also said the district would analyze the schools where performance decreased to give suggestions on how they could improve their scores. This would include offering additional writing help to Immokalee High School, where Abalos said data indicate the school needs extra help.

Golden Terrace Elementary School also will focus on its writing instruction to increase or hold its B grade next year, according to Principal Jan Messer. The school improved its grade from a C last year.

Messer attributes the improvement to the implementation of the 100 Book Challenge, which is an independent reading program, and team planning, where teachers work together to brainstorm on projects.

“It’s been really helpful. It’s built a community of adult students here,” she said.

The team concept also worked at Immokalee Middle School, which saw its grade improve from a D to a C.

Principal Lisa Scallan said the school is implementing the district’s professional learning communities, which allow teachers to meet and analyze data looking for strengths and weaknesses of instruction. She said the teachers chose an area such as reading comprehension that they think could have an effect in the classroom. Next year, the teachers will break into teams based on their areas and work on a curriculum that will benefit the students.

“We have a lot of excellent teachers who are doing a lot of wonderful things in their classrooms,” she said. “This will open the doors to those classrooms.”

The Florida Department of Education awards monetary aid to schools on the basis of these grades. Each school that maintains a grade of A or improves its grade over the previous year is awarded $100 per student registered at that school. The money may be used by a school for faculty incentives, educational equipment, new technology or hiring temporary personnel to assist in maintaining and improving student performance.

The program has a positive effect on schools maintaining or improving their grades statewide. In 2006, 1,033 schools maintained their As, 36 new schools earned an A, 397 schools improved to an A and 332 schools improved to a grade other than an A.

Scallan, James and Estates Elementary School Principal Oliver Phipps, who saw his school’s grade go from a C to an A, said a committee at their schools will determine how the money will be used.

Parents will receive a school report card that provides a comprehensive look at their children’s schools, with results under state and federal standards, as well as information on spending at the school level.