{"id":56680,"date":"2025-07-08T19:35:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=56680"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:35:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:35:41","slug":"polk-county-schools-receive-b-grade-for-the-first-time-since-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/07\/08\/polk-county-schools-receive-b-grade-for-the-first-time-since-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County schools receive \u2018B\u2019 grade for the first time since 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"67b4ac\" data-has-transparency=\"true\" style=\"--dominant-color: #67b4ac;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"394\" height=\"140\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo_1.webp?resize=394%2C140&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56681 has-transparency\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo_1.webp?w=394&amp;ssl=1 394w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo_1.webp?resize=300%2C107&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County\u2019s school superintendent calls the district\u2019s \u201cB\u201d grade an \u201caffirmation\u201d for his employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt really does a lot to reinforce and reinvigorate our workforce,\u201d Superintendent Frederick Heid said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After receiving \u201cC\u201d grades since the pandemic, the district earned a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/accountability\/accountability-reporting\/school-grades\/\">\u201cB\u201d from the Florida Department of Education<\/a>, which uses a grading system based on graduation rates, test results and other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is no way to teach to the test, but we can make sure that our students get exposed to the level of rigor and the content that the benchmarks outline,\u201d Heid said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other grades in Tampa Bay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hillsborough County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pinellas County: A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pasco County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Citrus County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DeSoto County: C<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hardee County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hernando County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlands County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manatee County: B<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sarasota County: A<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heid said, in order to receive an \u201cA\u201d, Polk County needs to get better at one subject specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRight now, what our data indicates is that we really need to focus on 9th-grade math. We\u2019ve got to focus on algebra. We\u2019ve got to focus on geometry,\u201d Heid said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While proud of the \u201cB\u201d grade, school board member Lisa Miller said individual school grades should not be looked at as a \u201cfinal read\u201d of the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom our hospital homebound to our juvenile justice programs, all of those scores matter,\u201d Miller said. \u201cNo matter the ability of the child or the circumstances, we take all kids and I\u2019m most proud of that because it shows what it takes to raise expectations for all kids and outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While some schools received a lower grade, 14 traditional schools in the Polk County system improved their grades over the last year, according to the school district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to addressing math scores, absenteeism and working with parents, Heid said the district also needs to provide more competitive wages for teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m proud of the hard work that our educators do every day and the learning that our students do every day,\u201d said Stephanie Yocum, president of the Polk Education Association, the teachers\u2019 union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To Yocum, work in the classroom is more important than a grade from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe state could arbitrarily move these benchmarks next year and then all of a sudden, Polk could be a \u2018D\u2019 or Polk could be an \u2018A\u2019. It really is so arbitrary because the state sets these metrics every year,\u201d Yocum said.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"756d62\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #756d62;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"281\" height=\"180\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download.webp?resize=281%2C180&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56682 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt doesn\u2019t tell the story of the teacher and knowing every family and the social worker and the kids going from our senior classes to boot camp or to Ivy League schools. It doesn\u2019t tell the depth of who we serve,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Graduation rates in Polk County increased from 78% to 83%, according to state data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polk County\u2019s school superintendent calls the district\u2019s \u201cB\u201d grade an \u201caffirmation\u201d for his employees. \u201cIt really does a lot to reinforce and reinvigorate our workforce,\u201d Superintendent Frederick Heid said. After&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"26","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcL2xvZ29fMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0zOTQlMkMxNDAmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBzY2hvb2xzIHJlY2VpdmUgXHUyMDE4Qlx1MjAxOSBncmFkZSBmb3IgdGhlIGZpcnN0IHRpbWUgc2luY2UgMjAxOSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.ZCpW8DUKQpCXZRlNS1DGdtCA69WeicKh_XLkV5SQ6FwMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56681,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo_1.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[11796],"class_list":["post-56680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-polk-county-schools-receive-b-grade-for-the-first-time-since-2019"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56683,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56680\/revisions\/56683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}