Hamilton County School Superintendent Tom Moffses

The 2013-14 high school grades and graduation rates were released by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) on Thursday, Dec. 18, with preliminary results showing that Hamilton County High School (HCHS) earned a “D”, up from last year’s “F” grade, to join 54 other high schools throughout the state that increased their school grade. FDOE says results will be updated after the annual high school grade appeals period.

“I am confident that our state’s educators will continue providing a high quality education that builds on the progress we have made,” FDOE Commissioner Pam Stewart stated in a press release. “As always, there is room for improvement. We will continue working closely with all of our school districts to provide the support necessary to ensure Florida students are prepared for college, a career and life.”

Hamilton County Superintendent of Schools Tom Moffses said the state has made over 50 grading formula changes in the last couple of years; last year, only a couple months before test scores were released.  

“This year the score threshold was raised again, so to have a school grade increase under these changes shows a major improvement in how our students performed on state exams and how our teachers are continuing to change their teaching methodology,” said Moffses. “The idea of accountability is great and I fully support accountability. However, a continual moving target is not realistic for our hardworking students, teachers and staff. Add to it, teacher pay requirements by the state, based on grading formulas that are a moving target, and it causes our teachers much more pressure while working under a constantly changing landscape.”

Moffses explained that HCHS is considered a combination middle/high school and the grading is weighted differently than a traditional 9-12 school.  

“A traditional school is weighted 50 percent FCAT/50 percent graduation rate, college readiness, advanced course placement and performance in college level courses,” said Moffses. “In both FY 2012-13 and 2013-14 (which is the grading reported now for the high school―6 months later) the HCHS grade would have been a ‘C’ when using the 50/50 ratio. I petitioned the school grade last year, citing all the reasons we should be graded on the 50/50 scale (due to legislative requirement changes) and will do so again this year.”

Moffses said the petition for a grade change was denied by the Commissioner of Education, but he has already talked with FDOE this past week and told them another petition would be forthcoming.  

“It was made clear that in the new grading formula we would not have the same issues, but that is a year away and continues to negatively impact currently released school grades,” Moffses said.

He also said the district is excited that HCHS has moved off the “F” list that FDOE established, but they are not satisfied.

“Our students, teachers and staff work extremely hard each day to excel in education and will continue to do so moving forward and upward,” said Moffses.

If you do a deep review of the way the testing and grading formula are arranged, Moffses said, it is designed for an urban district with value points added for many large scale advanced course work not available to small and rural districts.  

“We are, and have added additional virtual courses online that will leverage options for our students to participate in these additional course/class opportunities,” said Moffses. “We have certification courses, but not to the extent larger districts have the ability to provide. Add to this that we have a need for career and technical courses (CTE) for our students in both certified nursing assistant (CAN) and welding. Last year and this year we identified almost 30 students for CNA and 15 for welding, yet cannot get the needed instructional resources to commit from any of the area advanced educational institutions. This has been presented to NFCC, Wiregrass, Suwannee-VoTech, FGC, and Taylor Tech.”

All the organizations have options, Moffses said, but will not commit to working onsite with their students.  

“The district does not have the excess funds to fully fund these programs with local instructors,” he said. “Our students that qualify and want these trade courses are not able to travel to these school locations.”

These interested students qualify for the programs, but they need to remain onsite at the high school in order to complete required course work for graduation, Moffses explained. They have the ability to add one additional class in a vocational trade field, but cannot afford to be away from campus in a dual enrollment setting without meeting requirements for their high school graduation.

Graduation rates

Graduation rates for 2013-14 were also released and are at an 11-year high of 76.1 percent, an increase of 0.5 percent over last year, and a rise of nearly 17 percentage points since 2003-04, according to FDOE.

Stewart said, “I’m proud that Florida’s graduation rate has reached an 11-year high. This is truly a testament to Florida’s hard-working teachers, principals and administrators who help our students achieve success.”

HCHS’s graduation rate increased to a new high of 78.6 percent; an improvement of 23.1 percentage points over last year and 13.6 percentage points since 2010-11.

“This year’s historic graduation rate for Hamilton County is a true indicator of positive things happening at HCHS and within the district,” said Moffses. “We are all in this together and I’d like to thank our community volunteers who visit our schools reading to children, helping with homework, assisting in tutoring and coaching our student athletes. We have great kids, great teachers and staff, and a great community. Working together, we can all utilize the high school’s theme and Rise2Excellence.”

The graduation rate, according to FDOE, measures the percentage of students who graduate within four years of their first enrollment in ninth grade. The rate is calculated for an adjusted cohort of students – a group of students on the same schedule to graduate – taking into account those who enter or exit the group.

Florida’s graduation rate only considers standard diploma recipients as graduates in the calculation. Students who earn a special diploma, a GED-based diploma, a certificate of completion, or have been retained and are still in school after four years are counted as non-completers in the calculation. Florida’s graduation rate has risen by 5.5 percentage points since 2010-11 and 16.9 percentage points since 2003-04.

The State Board of Education rule mandates that if at least 75 percent of schools earn an “A” or “B”, the amount of points needed for a school to earn a school grade is increased in the following year.  Since 83 percent of high schools earned an “A” or “B” in 2012-13, in accordance with State Board of Education rule, the grading scale was adjusted upward for high schools in 2013-14.       

After receiving input from families and educators, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed legislation in May to simplify the school grading formula to focus on factors critical to student success. This is the final year school grades will be calculated using the current formula.

The new formula emphasizes success measures, such as student achievement, learning gains, graduation rates and earning college credit and industry certifications. School grades will be calculated next year using the new formula and schools earning a “D” or “F” will not be required to implement turnaround options for one year.

High school grades typically come out much later than elementary school grades, which were released in July, at which time Central Hamilton Elementary scored an “F”, and both North and South scored a “C” grade. Preliminary district grades were also released in July and Hamilton County received an “F” grade, the same as the previous year.

For more information on school grades, you can log on to http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org.