Pasco public school rankings released

Parents and students in Pasco County who wonder how their schools stack up against others in the state can now find out.

The Florida Department of Education released lists this week that rank every public school in the state.

Pasco's highest ranking schools within each category were Wesley Chapel Elementary, Pine View Middle, Mitchell High and Imagine School at Land O' Lakes, a charter school.

Not everyone thinks the rankings – based largely on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results – are meaningful or even a good idea.

Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, said in a prepared statement that the rankings are a misuse of FCAT, which he said is supposed to be a diagnostic tool that helps teachers and parents spot student weaknesses so they can improve student performance

"Any attempt to reduce learning to merely numbers is misguided," Ford said. "Schools just can't be rated like shampoos. Worst of all is using these scores not just to rate but to rank, so that the emphasis is on who's beating whom."

Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson has a different take on it.

"Measuring a school's ability to boost academic achievement helps ensure that we are providing a high-quality education for our students," Robinson said in a prepared statement.

"Having the data available in an easy-to-use format allows parents, educators, and business and community leaders to view the information and make decisions about how they can be involved in education decisions in their local communities."

But the rankings are based on information that was already available to school districts because FCAT scores and schools grades were released previously, said Summer Romagnoli, spokeswoman for the Pasco County School District.

So essentially there is nothing the rankings can tell district officials that they didn't already know, she said.

The district already makes use of FCAT data to monitor how well schools are performing and where resources need to be allocated, Romagnoli said.

"Our school district is making progress and we are moving in the right direction," she said.

Pasco's highest-ranked elementary school, Wesley Chapel, an A school, came in at No. 179 out of 1,795 elementary schools in Florida.

Pasco's lowest ranked elementary was Gulf Highlands, an F school, which came in at No. 1,789.

Pine View Middle, an A school, ranked No. 58 out of 583 middle schools statewide. At the low end for Pasco was Stewart Middle, a C school, at No. 470.

Mitchell High School, Pasco's top-ranked high school and an A school, was No. 72 out of 404 high schools on the state list. Zephyrhills High, a C school, was lowest ranked at No. 320.

Fivay High School, which opened in 2010, was on a separate list for high schools that haven't been around long enough to have all the criteria that factor into the high school rankings. Fivay, a D school, was No. 28 out of 37 schools on that list.

Four Pasco charter schools were ranked among 194 schools that are combination elementary/middle schools. They were Imagine School at Land O' Lakes, No. 28; Academy at the Farm, No. 38; Dayspring Academy, No. 49; and Athenian Academy of Pasco County, No. 124.

The complete lists can be viewed at www.fldoe.org/Ranking/Schools.

The numerical rankings are based on a point system calculated by using FCAT scores. The total is the sum of student scores for reading, math, science and writing; learning gains in reading and math; and scores for learning gains in reading and math among the lowest 25 percent of students in each school.

High school scores have additional criteria. Those are graduation rates; postsecondary readiness; and student participation and performance in accelerated coursework, such as Advance Placement.

The school-by-school rankings came a week after the state ranked all 67 school districts. Pasco ranked No. 34.