Healing the Wounds of Social Promotion Struggle and Success in Turning
Around Public Education

Don Gaetz 
04/13/05

It didn't seem to matter where I was or who was in the audience as I met with groups throughout Northwest Florida last week. The question was the same:

"How did it happen - what occurred that turned Okaloosa Schools from 'C schools' to 'A schools' over the past five years?"

School grades are calculated by the Department of Education by how students do based on state standards in reading, writing, science and mathematics. The Sunshine State Standards and the scholastic expectations for every grade and age level are available for anyone to review by going to www.OkaloosaSchools.com . It's not a perfect system and the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test isn't a flawless instrument for measuring performance.

But, thanks to Governor Bush, at least now there's a school performance scoreboard whose reliability and validity have withstood the critics and earned national affirmation.

Don Gaetz 

Don Gaetz is Superintendent of Schools in Okaloosa County and a regular Gulf 1
columnist. His co-author for this column is Dr. John Cavanaugh, President of
the University of West Florida.

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