PolkMoms.com

So ladies, what do you think? Are you satisfied with these results?

I think that the county rising as a whole from c to b is great, but many schools that were A schools dropped to B schools and so forth.

When I was going through the school grades when posting them to the link section of the blog tab here on Polk Moms, I was shocked! Some of our Polk Schools are D's and F's and some of our children are attending these schools with limited other options.

Give me some feedback on this one ladies, I would love to hear your opinions.



http://www.theledger.com/article/20080709/NEWS/80709048...de_Rises_From_C_to_B

I don't have a child in school yet, but my husband is a teacher @ Haines City Sr. High. I am so glad they went up to a "C" school instead of a "F".
We graduated from HC and it's nice to see some good news for a change instead of getting looked down upon.
Just because it's a "F" school doesn't mean it's all the teachers fault. Theres good and bad at ALL schools.

The problem with school grades is they are VERY dependent on the FCAT, which in my opinion is the most ridiculous thing ever put into place.

If you have a school with a high ELL population (English Language Learners) they will always score lower on the FCAT due to language issues. Polk County schools have a lot of ELL students. You could have as much as 60% of your school being children who are learning English, and they take the same old standardized test, written in English only, as every other child.

I will take school grades more seriously when they are based on specifics about the school, it's population and teachers and not just a grade on a standardized test that tests nothing.

Sorry for the rant.

I love these comments and opinions! I would love to hear more!

I agree the FCAT is ridiculous. What happened to doing school that way it was done decades ago? It's interesting hearing from the older generation and how they learned things like doing math in their head etc. It's so different now and not for the better either.