published: Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Grades released for elementary, middle schools

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY

christopher.tuffley@newssun.com

SEBRING -- Grades for Florida's elementary and middle public schools were released Wednesday. High school grades are pending until December.

In Highlands County, the two standouts are Lake Placid Elementary School and Sebring Middle School, both of which received an A for the third consecutive year.

Two other schools did very well.

Lake Country Elementary School advanced to a B, jumping two grade levels from a D in 2011.

Avon Elementary School advanced a grade level to a C.

Two schools held their own. Avon Park Middle School and Cracker Trail Elementary School both maintained Cs for the third year in a row.

The remaining schools all lost a grade level, but only Memorial Elementary School was graded a D.

Park Elementary, Sun 'N Lake Elementary and Hill-Gustat Middle schools all dropped to a B.

Fred Wild Elementary, Woodlawn Elementary and Lake Placid Middle schools went from a B to a C.

The School Board of Highlands county issued a press release which thanked administrators, teachers, support staff, students, parents and the community for their hard work and support during a difficult year of shifting standards and change.

For example, for the first time the performance of students with disabilities and students just learning English were included in the school grade.

Because of the entire district's hard work, "93 percent of our elementary and middle schools earned a grade of A, B or C. This exceeded the state total of 89 percent," the press release said.

Due to radically lowered results projected by the state board of education -- caused by more difficult tests and tighter standards introduced at the same time -- the state did adjust the scoring for this year alone to off set what were generally seen as unfair setbacks.