What they say: we have the highest standards in the state and our graduation rate has gone up over 11 percent in the last 4 years.
Reality: the graduation rate has gone up by about six percent (most of that in the last two years) since the district went to higher standards six years ago. The real question is how much has social promotions and grade recovery played in that increase.
What they say: discipline is way up because referrals and suspensions are way down.
Reality: one of the districts three goals is to improve teacher morale. This begs the question why do they have to work on teacher’s morale, if classes have magically become so orderly? Teachers report the exact opposite about discipline, though I have no doubt reported and written referrals and suspensions are way down. The reality however is this has hurt discipline.
What they say: more of our kids are graduating college ready.
Reality: what college are they talking about? Florida state college reports 70% of our graduates have to take remedial classes.
What they say: Duval is a B district.
Reality: The state ranked us fiftieth out of 67 districts, we have 8 of the bottom 25 high schools and our middle schools have similar rankings. We graduate a grade recovery and social promotion inflated 63 percent of our kids (again ranks around 50), which includes just 54% of our African American kids. The reality is that in Florida a B district grade isn’t all that good.
What they say: We only have limited cash reserves. This is the drum they beat during last years budget meetings.
Reality: They had somewhere between 100-160 million dollars in available cash, programs were cut and people lost their jobs.
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