Duval lags behind other big counties on FCAT

To be quite honest, it wouldn’t be fair to compare our third grade reading FCAT scores to St. Johns or Clay counties, we have different issues, but there are other districts where a comparison might be fair. Below I have compared Duval’s 3rd grade reading scores with the other counties that had over ten thousand third graders take the test. We had 10,057.

Palm Beach 54%
Orange 56%
Hillsborough 57%
Duval 51%
Dade 53%
Broward 56%

So of the big six we came in last. I then compared our math scores.

Palm Beach 56%
Orange 58%
Hillsborough 55%
Duval 56%
Dade 60%
Broward 59%

We did a little better beating Hillsborough which had 4000 more kids take the test and tying with Palm Beach which had 3500.

How about the geometry and biology end of course exams?

The state mean was a 49 in geometry, which means if this was next year 51% of all students would have failed the class as the EOC goes extremely high stakes. This year it only counts for 30% of a student’s grade. Who wants to bet there are a lot of geometry students not feeling very confident right now?

Palm Beach 49%
Orange 48%
Hillsborough 50%
Duval 46%
Dade 46%
Broward 50%

We are tied with Dade which had almost double the amount of kids taking the test but lagging a little behind the rest of the large counties.

The state mean in biology was again 49%, which again means a little over half our students will fail next year if the scores hold steady. That’s one test covering a years worth of learning, something that doesn’t happen in college determining if a kid passes or fails a class.

Palm Beach 50%
Orange 50%
Hillsborough 50%
Duval 49%
Dade 47%
Broward 52%

Again we were above Dade but slightly below the rest of the big counties.

9th grade reading

Palm Beach 53%
Orange 48%
Hillsborough 50%
Duval 48%
Dade 48%
Broward 51%

10th grade reading

Palm Beach 54%
Orange 49%
Hillsborough 51%
Duval 45%
Dade 46%
Broward 49%

In last place in both categories.

When comparing Duval County to the other five big districts in Florida Duval is consistently on or near the bottom in every category.

Now the question becomes why.