WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Superintendent Mike Burke of the School District of Palm Beach County says it's all hands on deck to get the district's grade back up to an "A" after falling to a "B" in the new ratings that just came out days ago.
Last year was the first for the state's new progress monitoring testing system, so the new school grades are considered baseline information.
The superintendent said test results received over the summer showed there was some work to do, so the district immediately began making changes to better adapt and learn from the first year of this new testing.
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"There was no credit given for learning gains. And we have a lot of students who come to us who need to catch up or have a ways to go, particularly coming out of the pandemic," Burke said. "So I think going into year two of it, getting the benefit of learning gains that will also boost our score."
Burke added that he's confident the district will get back to an "A" next year. He said while the grade is important, what really matters is the work going on inside classrooms.
"This year, we are better equipped to leverage the diagnostic data to predict how our kids are going and identify areas where they need extra help and get them that support in time for the third test in the spring, which is the one that counts," Burke said.