Ascend Leadership Academy, a public charter school serving sixth through ninth graders in Lee County, received a D performance score from the state in its first year earning a ranking.
The Sanford Herald’s coverage of the 2019 school performance grades for Lee County’s public schools (subscription required), and of plans by East Lee and West Lee to improve their scores (subscription required), do not mention Ascend’s rating, which is made up of a 58 in reading, a 52 in math. Ascend also did not meet academic growth goals.
Critics of the state’s school grading system have said that it is unfairly skewed against schools with lower income populations and doesn’t account for enough factors to give an accurate picture of a school’s performance.
The score for Ascend is roughly in line with two of Lee County’s three other middle schools. East and West Lee each also scored a D, with East earning a 53 in reading, and 51 and West earning a 59 in reading and a 50 in math. Neither school met academic growth goals. SanLee fared better, scoring a C with a 62 in reading, a 59 in math, and meeting growth goals.
A second charter school, this one serving elementary age children, is set to open in a portion of the old Kendale shopping center in 2020.
The state school grading system is essentially meaningless in identifying strengths and weaknesses in our public school system. The only thing it does well is identify the schools that need more resources (basically all of them).
They’ve taken in the children that were already failing at the normal public schools. And it seems so many of the students are finally excelling. What’s really wrong with this picture?!