In 2018 five Leon County schools made the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) list of the state’s 300 lowest performing elementary schools.
The recently released 2019 FSA score show mixed results for these five schools.
Key takeaways:
- None of the five elementary schools scored above the Leon or Florida state averages for the 2019 FSA English and FSA Math scores.
- Oak Ridge and Pineview elementary schools showed significant gains in the percentage of students which scored a level 3 or above in the FSA Math and FSA English tests when compared to 2018 results.
- The most significant improvement among the group was reported for Oak Ridge Elementary School’s FSA Math score, which jumped from 30.3% in 2018 to 53.3% in 2019.
- Hartsfield and Bond elementary schools show mixed results. Both schools had lower FSA English scores when compared to 2018, but both had higher FSA Math scores.
- Riley Elementary School showed significant declines in both FSA English and FSA Math scores. The FSA English score fell from 31.7% to 22.5% and the FSA Math score fell from 46.5% to 36.2%.
FSA Results are Mixed for Leon’s Struggling Elementary Schools added by Steve Stewart on
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Here is a thought………… Take the Teachers from the A Schools and switch them with an E or D School and see what happens. If the A Schools DROP, you know it was the Teachers.
1000% agree move some of those A/B Principals to the lo performing schools instead of only moving them when they sleep with teachers or the parents run them out…just saying
If there is any kind of moderation on TR, News Maven should be getting a hook.
As long as my taxes are paying your salary, you’ll just have to grow a pair.
After all, you just commented, “There is blame to go around…”
I was educated on probably 1/10th the money thrown at Leon County skrewels. And I graduated in the top 1/2% of my senior class of over 600.
(Not in Leon County, of course.)
And I even learned two foreign languages.
Neither of which was Ebonic.
There is blame to go around – as well as commendation. I teach in a Title 1 school in LCS, and we work hard on our end to hold up the team. Much like football, there are natural divisions of responsibilities within the team: offense, defense, special teams. In education, it can be parents, school faculty, and students. Each part of the team has a role to play, and if any one area is weak, then failure will happen and increase. When each part works together, success can be accomplished.
Poverty doesn’t follow successful people as a norm. Selfishness, arrogant pride, ignorance, laziness and drama do typically surround impoverished people. Owning up (confessing) these ills is a great starting point for those who should be leading – but not to be worn as a garland of shame, but as a reminder that a better life can be had by both the parents and the children. Parents may have to put off some behaviors and adopt healthier ones, students may need boundaries and accountability to expectations, and schools may need staff that understand the uphill climb.
Overall, a drastic change in culture is often needed. Success starts at home, where values (or the lack thereof) are instilled. As a teacher, sometimes we’re faced with creating a dichotomy for our students (when you’re here at school, these are the expectations), and this scenario does not play well with a unified, “team” mindset among parents, students and faculty. However, it is a strategy that is sometimes necessary to employ to help our students grow academically and mature mentally. We sometimes have to highlight the fact that “yeah, life sucks right now, but if you learn what you need to know, you can have chance to make a difference for yourself – and others”. This development of perseverance and resilience is vital to success.
These are just some thoughts on the matter. There isn’t a perfect system, but there are definitely options, strategies, and simply truths that should be examined and used as tools for moving forward.
Why does it say “Welcome to Riley Elementary” instead of “Welcome to John G. Riley Elementary”? When I went there (69/70) it was “John G. Riley”.
I suppose that it is just a matter of time that we will hear that the problem(s) is/are attributable to money, or the lack thereof. The “poor little me” whine of “aer” comes closest so far. No, it is not money; no, it is not a “history of racism.” It is the failure and refusal of the parents of these kids to fully involve themselves in creating functional, self-supporting adults-to-be. It is the inculcation of the “woe-is-me” and victim mentality by the parent(s)–perhaps the same mentalities with which they were raised. Generations are intended to advance–rationale people want their children to be better and to perform better than they did. There are those, however, in this community (a favorite word of many of them-CO-MUNE-IH-TEE as it is often pronounced), and elsewhere, who think that other people should pick up the slack, financial and otherwise, and whine if they don’t get the handout or subsidy they think they deserve. Largely, folks, it is your own fault. Many people have risen from modest beginnings to solid lives and have taught their children accordingly. Why not you? And the “leaders” (although I use the term advisedly) whom you support, like Mr. Hanna, and the teachers’ union bosses are not on your side if your goal is to raise productive adults. There are producers of value and people who just take it. Decide which you want your child to be and run your home and your life accordingly so that he/she has someone worthy to model. Don’t vote for crooks or for people so blinded by their own goals and sense of importance that it is all they see. Overall, this is not hard to figure out. If you can’t, or choose not to, you are a big part of the problem and no part of the solution, so just be quiet. You’ve done enough harm to everybody, your child included.
6 actual hours of structure and instruction will rarely be able to compete with the remaining 18 hours of the day without structure or guidance. No amount of money thrown at a school will change that. Perhaps “community organizers” and “community leaders” could direct their attention at parents in the communities they claim to represent and not the institutions we all pay to provide.
I ran into one of those “community leaders” at the Barber Shop. He had a lot of firsthand insight about the school / southside problems and had spent time working as a volunteer in the schools. One big issue he talked about was the misuse of Title 1 funds. That money is supposed to be used for after school tutoring, mentoring etc. for disadvantaged students but instead has gone to buying armoires / nice office furniture, equipping teachers lounges and the like. LCSB expects the community mentors and tutors to donate their time for free for the things Title 1 is supposed to pay for. This is consistent with the report that ipads were bought with Title 1 funds at Fairview and given to IB students, when the zoned students were left to depend on donations. So maybe if the school district used Title 1 funds as intended the scores would have been better? Just a thought…
Isn’t misappropriation of federal funding a violation of the law? If true, would Rocky Hanna face prosecution? I’m sure the Fake Newsocrat’s investigative team will get right on it, lol!
And Cogent’s comment below is spot on. Terrible parents are the biggest part of the problem. Money is the smallest part. It’s not my job as a taxpayer to raise your kids!
What a perfect encapsulation of modern Conservative thought on display in the comments of TR, as usual. In a lot of instances, the Creepily Spelled diatribe by TONY is correct, this is a parent problem, as opposed to a school problem, but the casual nature in which children’s opportunities are discarded and mocked because the people happen to be brown is obscene and would make Jesus weep. Not racist, but #1 with racists! Keeping it classy, TR.
Where is the accountability for Rocky Hanna and his curriculum team? The scores in our highest poverty school reflect the lack of commitment and understanding from the Hanna administration. Rocky Hanna is Not an instructional leader. With our new insurance costs Rocky Hanna is Not a budget leader. If you are Scott Hansen or a Hanna minion like Cox Kraul, Gregory, Rodgers you get $100,00 per year while we get school failure! Teachers in Leon County please unite with us and protest. The misguided rule of Rocky Hanna deserves a recall election.
I had a Mother Inlaw that was a Teacher at Riley and hated it. The Parents SUCKED, their Kids would be filthy and stunk very bad, they were always unruley and the Parents didn’t care, they never came to Parent Night. She had to send many Kids home to get a Bath before being allowed back.
Wow, Tony.
You just outdid my comment.
Watch out for the aer head!
Wow…i think you both need a bath… So sad that racist like you have a platform to spew ur HATE…
Good to know that “TRUTH” is also Racist to you Leftist Democrats. Is there anything you people DON’T consider Racist?
A guv’mint check.
Any other questions I can answer for you, Tony?
That comment is unnecessary and uniformed, News Maven. We as a community need to wake up and recognize the shameful fact that the children at Riley grow up in the poorest zip code in our STATE within walking distance of 2 colleges and our capital. Why don’t you search your heart for ways to help instead of slinging nasty comments at children.
Well said.. Im so sick of her smartass remarks, its sad in 2019 and she is living in the 60s…
Is there an FSA Ebonics test that could be administered in lieu of the English test?
If so, I’d expect those skrewels would perform to the “mastery” level.