School Grades provide an easily understandable way to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the school grade and its components to understand how well each school is serving its students. Schools are graded A, B, C, D, or F, and these grades are calculated for each county-based district.
A School's Grade May Include up to Twelve Components: There are five achievement components, four learning gains components, a middle school acceleration component, as well as components for graduation rate, and college and career acceleration. Each component is worth up to 100 points in the overall calculation. The number of points earned for each component are added together and divided by the total number of available points to determine the percentage of points earned.
Accountability Data: All students who are full-year enrolled in the state are included in the statewide components. This means that students who were not full-year enrolled at an individual school or district but who were full-year enrolled within the state are included in the statewide components. Therefore, these numbers and percentages may vary slightly from assessment results published elsewhere that include all test takers.
Five Achievement Components: The five achievement components are Grade 3 English Language Arts, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. These components include student performance on statewide, standardized assessments, including the comprehensive assessments and end-of-course (EOC) assessments. The component measures the percentage of full-year enrolled students who achieved a passing score.
Four Learning Gains Components: These components are learning gains in English Language Arts and Mathematics, as well as learning gains for the lowest performing 25% of students in English Language Arts and Mathematics. These components include student performance on statewide, standardized assessments including the comprehensive assessments and EOC assessments for the current year and the prior year. The components measure the percentage of full-year enrolled students who achieved a learning gain from the prior year to the current year.
Middle School Acceleration: This component is based on the percentage of eligible students who passed a high school level EOC assessment or industry certification.
College and Career Acceleration: This component is based on the percentage of graduates from the graduation rate cohort who earned a score on an acceleration examination (AP, IB, or AICE), earned a passing grade in a dual enrollment course that qualified for college credit, earned 300 clock hours through career dual enrollment courses in the same approved program, earned an Armed Services Qualification Test score and two course credits within the same military branch, or earned an industry certification. College and Career Acceleration is determined using prior-year data. The year reflected in the charts is the year these components were used to calculate the school or district's grade.
Graduation Rate: The graduation rate is based on an adjusted cohort of ninth grade students and measures whether the students graduated within four years. Since graduation rates are calculated at the end of the year, this component is a lag measure and uses the prior year's graduation rate for the current year's school and district grade calculation. The year reflected in the charts is the year these components were used to calculate the school or district's grade.
Minimum Number of Students for Inclusion in Florida's Accountability System: A school receives a grade based solely on the components for which it has sufficient data. Sufficient data exists when at least 10 students are eligible for inclusion in the calculation of the component. If a school has less than 10 eligible students with data for a particular component, that component is not calculated in the school's grade. See Section 1008.34(3)(a), Florida Statutes for more details.
For information on school grades, see the School Grades Overview (PDF) and the Guide to Calculating School Grades, District Grades, and Federal Percent of Points Index (PDF).