School rankings show tie between poverty, performance

— Florida has ranked all 3,078 public and charter schools for the first time, largely by scores on the state's standardized test.

The results in Hillsborough County: Public schools with the smallest share of poor students perform the best.

Bevis Elementary ranks No. 1 among Hillsborough's 150 elementary schools — tied for first, in fact, among all state elementary schools. Randall Middle School is tops among Hillsborough district middle schools, and Newsome High is the No. 1 local high school.

All three have the lowest percentage of students in poverty of any Hillsborough schools at their grade levels.

This limits the value of such a ranking in the view of the school district.

"It's not enough to really know the quality of the school," said Linda Cobbe, Hillsborough school district spokeswoman.

The points assigned by the state Department of Education to elementary, middle and high schools are tied to their scores on the annual Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, with graduation rates added in for high school rankings.

Any meaningful ranking, Cobbe said, would need to account for other considerations, including the number of students on free or reduced-price lunches.

As it is, the performance rankings of the 200-plus Hillsborough schools on the list — including charter schools — track closely with their percentage of poor students.

"That doesn't come as a surprise," Cobbe said.

"Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches probably have other factors in their lives that distract them," she said. "They may not have opportunities that a child who isn't in the program does. Parental involvement might not be as much."

In placing the data on its website, the state education department draws no conclusions.

The information comes on the heels of an earlier list from the state ranking Florida's 67 school districts based on the same FCAT-driven criteria. Hillsborough has ranked 38th in that exercise.

In a video on the website that accompanied the district rankings, state Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said the idea is "to start a conversation about how we can encourage districts to move in a different direction … what we can do as citizens to support our public school system."

To find nine of the top 10 performers among the 150 Hillsborough elementary schools, you don't have to look any deeper than No. 20 on the list of those with the fewest poor students.

"Absolutely we're proud of Bevis, and the students and teachers there," said Cobbe, speaking of the top performing elementary school at 5720 Osprey Ridge Drive in FishHawk Ranch.

"They enjoy benefits other schools don't," Cobbe added. "But I wouldn't want to take away from them what it is to be tied for first."

Only 8 percent of students at Bevis are on free or reduced-price lunches, compared to 88 percent at Riverhills Elementary in Temple Terrace, which ranked last among Hillsborough elementary schools on the state's performance list.

Among 52 middle schools, all 10 of the top performers appear among the 20 schools with the lowest share of poor students.

And at the secondary level, with 29 local high schools, there is close to a one-to-one correlation: Five of the top six performers also rank as the schools with the lowest share of students on free or reduced-price lunches.

A handful of Hillsborough schools bucked the trend of poverty aligning with performance, including Tampa Palms Elementary, which ranked No. 7 locally and has 40 percent of students on free and reduced-price lunches.

Hillsborough High and Tampa Bay Tech High also performed significantly better than their poverty rates would indicate.

Charter schools appeared at both ends of the list.

Terrace Community Middle School in Thonotosassa — its free or reduced lunch rate at 15 percent — outperformed all local institutions at the middle school level.

At the bottom of the performance lists, on the other hand, were Mount Pleasant Standard Base Middle School and Seminole Heights Charter School, with 91 percent and 66 percent of students, respectively, on free or reduced-price lunches.

To see the rankings, go to .