If Florida schools had a yearbook, Miami-Dade would hands down win “most improved.”
The state Department of Education released its annual school grades Wednesday and despite a high number of low-income and immigrant students, Miami-Dade recorded a milestone: the elimination of all F-rated district schools.
“Second only to the day I became superintendent, this is my proudest moment,” said Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho at a press conference announcing the results. “Nothing beats being able to say that failure has been eliminated in Miami-Dade.”
That’s not happened before in the county, district officials said. Miami-Dade has seen the number of failing traditional public schools plummet in recent years, from 16 F-rated schools in 2015 to seven last year. That’s compared to 26 schools with an F grade in 1999, the first year the state assigned letter grades to schools. There are still two charter schools in the county, which aren’t managed by the school district, that received an F on their state report card.
Overall, the district earned a B average with two-thirds of all schools getting an A or B. Broward County schools also earned a B average with half of its schools getting an A or B. Six Broward public schools that had been F-rated last year earned a C or D on the most recent state report cards. Two — Larkdale Elementary and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Montessori Academy — were rated F this year.
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