Stanford University\u2019s Educational Opportunity Project<\/a> tries to do it, and their research shows Florida\u2019s elementary school kids seem to lose a lot of ground as they move into middle school. <\/p>\n\n\n\nUsing state assessment results, the Stanford study showed from third to eighth grade, Florida\u2019s students learned 12% less each year from 2009 to 2018, dead last in the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs Florida really worse than Alabama? I don\u2019t know, we should study that, though, because that\u2019s what that data says, if there\u2019s a reason why that data is invalid, we should note that reason, same with the NAEP, but one of the things I pointed out is this pattern has been in place for 20 plus years at least,\u201d said Billy Townsend, a former Polk County School Board member who highlighted this issue in an editorial this week for the Tampa Bay Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Townsend points out that on the NAEP test \u2014 known as the nation\u2019s report card and given every two years in Miami-Dade, Duval, and Hillsborough counties to fourth and eighth graders \u2014 Florida\u2019s fourth graders score consistently well, but there\u2019s a huge drop off for the eighth graders. Last year, the state\u2019s fourth graders ranked fourth in the nation in math, but the 8th graders were 31st. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou cannot pawn this off on the pandemic,” Townsend said. “Florida has a pandemic-level collapse between fourth and eighth grade every year on the NAEP, every year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many possible reasons for the disconnect between fourth and eighth grade scores, including the fact that in Miami-Dade, 58% of eighth graders took high school-level algebra or geometry. The NAEP tests them on math they had a year or two earlier, making it harder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miami-Dade and Broward Public Schools have each embarked on initiatives to redesign and reimagine middle schools in recent years. Townsend says that should be a priority statewide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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