Hillsborough reports more A schools

Here's the report we received from the Hillsborough County School Board:

Tampa, Fla. - (June 18, 2009) - For the first time since the inception of the state's A+ school grading system, a majority of Hillsborough County Public Schools earned A grades.

A total of 120 schools received A's on their state report card, the number of B and C grades decreased, and no school was graded F. Overall, 57 percent of Hillsborough schools received an A and more than three-fourths received an A or B. Nearly two-thirds of elementary schools (66%) were graded A, and 60 percent of middle schools earned A's.

The most improved school was the USF/Patel Partnership School, which improved from an F last year to an A this year. The district took control of the former charter school days before the beginning of the school year.

Two "Intervene" schools - Sulphur Springs Elementary and Franklin Middle - improved their FCAT scores. Sulphur Springs improved from an F to a B, and Franklin improved from a D to a C. Broward Elementary School, which was not on the Intervene list but received an F last year, improved to a C this year.

High schools mirrored the state trend of lower grades, which is attributed to penalties for not meeting adequate point gains for the lowest achieving students. What the grades don't reflect is that there are fewer high school students performing at the lowest level than in previous years.