Alachua County Public School performance continues to drop relative to state
ANALYSIS
BY LEN CABRERA
ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) has released the academic assessment results for the 2025-2026 school year, and although Alachua County Public Schools’ (ACPS) performance increased in English Language Arts (ELA) and held steady in math, the district’s performance relative to the rest of the state was worse than in preceding years in nearly all categories. In addition, student progress over the course of the year was the worst in the state for math and the fourth worst for ELA.
All the data can be found at the FLDOE’s Assessment page. For ELA and math, performance is measured as the percentage of students who score a 3 (“on grade level”) or above on a 5-point scale. The Florida Assessment for Student Thinking (FAST) is administered three times during the year, with progress monitoring (PM) scores recorded each time. The difference between the final and initial scores (PM3 – PM1) shows the progress students made during the course of the year. Details can be found at FLDOE’s Understanding Florida Statewide Assessments Reports for Families.
The state’s portal only gives five years of data (2021-22 through 2025-26) and provides a warning that new standards were implemented in the 2022-23 school year, so “assessments cannot be compared to the former ELA and Mathematics assessment used from 2014-15 through 2021-22.” This prevents comparisons between students’ current performance and their performance before COVID-era shutdowns and virtual learning. Note also that there were no assessments done in the 2019-20 school year.
However, despite changes in assessment instruments, the basic metric is the percentage of students scoring a 3 (“on grade level”) or better. It might be inappropriate to compare students from different year groups because of the different standards, but that metric captures whether or not schools were successfully teaching the standard at the time of the assessment, so our graphs include data from the school years before 2022-23. Data prior to 2021-22 comes from previous downloads from the FLDOE’s Assessment page that are no longer available on the FLDOE website.
2025-26 ELA Performance
The overall ELA scores combine grades 3 through 10. ACPS started the year (PM1) just above the state average, with 40% of the students scoring 3 or better, ranking ACPS 16th out of 67 county school districts. During the course of the year, 59% of ACPS students improved to grade level, compared to 61% overall for the state, dropping the final ranking for ACPS to 29th. The overall improvement of just under 19 percentage points puts ACPS in 64th place in student progress. In the four years of progress monitoring, ACPS has always ranked in the bottom five for student progress for ELA.
The top counties for ELA performance were St. Johns, Nassau, Walton, Sarasota, and Lafayette. The top counties for ELA progress (i.e., biggest improvement from PM1 to PM3) were Glades, Wakulla, Franklin, Lafayette, and Liberty.
Considering ELA performance for each grade individually, fewer than two-thirds of ACPS students were at grade level in every year group. The best result was among 9th-graders, with 61.2% scoring 3 or better, ranking 22nd out of 67 county districts. Tenth-graders did not score as well, but the 10th-grade rank was the highest statewide rank for Alachua (10th place). That result is surprising, since the progress for Alachua 10th-graders during the year was second from the worst in the state (ranked 66 of 67). The progress for every year group in ACPS ranked in the bottom third of the state.
2025-26 Math Performance
ACPS’s math performance was considerably worse than the ELA results. The overall scores combine grades 3 through 8, plus algebra and geometry end-of-course (EOC) assessments. (Eighth-grade math scores are significantly lower than 3rd-7th because the top students progress to algebra or geometry, which are assessed separately.)
For overall math (including algebra and geometry), 53.9% of ACPS students scored a 3 or better, ranking 49th of 67 county school districts. The graph below shows ACPS results compared to the statewide performance for combined math assessments (including algebra and geometry). The gap between state and county performance has been growing since the 2020-21 school year, and it’s even wider (see below) if algebra and geometry results are not included.
Considering only grades 3-8, ACPS students started the year with only 18% overall at grade level in math, but that ranked 10th in the state. By the end of the year, ACPS raised the percentage of students at grade level to 52%. That level of improvement was ranked last in the state, and the final result ranked 57th out of 67 county school districts. The graph below shows math performance without the algebra and geometry EOCs. We do not have this data prior to 2021-22 because it’s no longer on the FLDOE website.
The top counties for overall math performance were St. Johns, Nassau, Walton, Collier, and Sumter. Note that the top three were the same as the top ELA performers. The top counties for math progress (i.e., biggest improvement from PM1 to PM3) were Gilchrist, Collier, St. Johns, Walton, and Okaloosa. The PM1 to PM3 results do not include algebra and geometry EOCs.
Considering math performance for each individual grade, ACPS was again unable to get two-thirds of the students in any year group up to grade level. Seventh-graders had the best performance, with 60% scoring 3 or better, ranking 62nd of 67 county districts. The ACPS fifth-graders had the best state ranking (45 of 67), but only 54% of them were at grade level. The progress for each year group, from 3rd grade to 7th grade, ranked in the bottom five in the state, with 8th-graders’ progress ranked in the lowest 10 districts.
Also see our companion opinion piece: Eight years into ACPS’s equity plan, the results are dismal
I do not regret, for one second, the fact we sent our child to a private school. It cost us a lot, we had to work long hours, even more than one job at a time.
But it was worth it.
This is a Alachua County. We can, and should, be doing better.
Unfortunately, you’re right, and the exit of academically minded students shows in a state-controlled assessment. The lack of a no-frills discipline plan is critical in a learning environment. Alachua County has a deplorable statewide reputation for its public schools. This is fixable, but it takes solid leadership from the top down.
Bob, you hit the nail on the head. The discipline problem is the number one thing that is dragging us down, and the frustrating thing is that it’s completely within the school board’s control.
We don’t have to wish for smarter students, beg parents to be more involved, or collect more tax money. School discipline is 100% a matter of policy. The discipline is out of control because the school board chooses to let it be that way.
As a retired Alachua County High School Mathematics Educator with 37 years of experience, I find this situation highly concerning. When fewer than 66% of the total age-group population attain grade-level performance, it indicates a significant decline in foundational knowledge each year. The accumulation of mathematical deficiencies becomes increasingly overwhelming, and future improvement becomes unlikely. Mathematical proficiency is an essential component of various fields such as science, engineering, and medicine. This situation jeopardizes an entire generation’s opportunities for productive and rewarding careers. I recommend investing in qualified teachers and modern equipment, as well as implementing a mandatory supplementary mathematics course immediately for all students below grade level to facilitate recovery. If necessary, this may involve reassigning elective time. Additionally, hiring former retired mathematics teachers on an annual contract basis to assist in this effort could prove beneficial.
Great ideas….funding may be an issue.
I had the same thoughts about the future of these children and their opportunities.
Another side of this I question is parent involvement. That can never been underestimated in it’s power.
So many people see school as the child care.
The job is not done when the child comes home. The home must develop a culture of education.
OUCH!
Just more undeniable proof of the SBAC’s grand strategy’s failure to educate our kids. It’s apparent the effects playing progressive politics on our playgrounds has had on our children’s education. It turns out ‘equity’ just means ensuring every kid’s education gets dragged down to the exact same level of mediocrity.
Remember, there’s been a Certain SBAC member who has been instrumental in playing identity politics with children as well as others on a national level. Just wait and see the cesspool we’ll find ourselves in if she gets elected to another position where she’s given the platform to represent only Certain people.
~If the prediction for tomorrow’s story is the same—just cut and paste the above comment.
And, now that “Certain SBAC” member is running for the Alachua County Commission. The commission is a bunch of bleeding heart liberals as it is that “Certain SBAC” member gets elected to the commission, we will be stuck with a bunch of bleeding heart liberals and a racist who hates White People.
Isn’t it amazing how every “woke” county (full of liberals who consider themselves to be the intellectual elite) always underperforms in public education, no matter how many tax dollars are thrown into the dumpster fire?
Parents have gotten any lazier or stopped caring–there’s the same amount of uninvolved, disinterested parents as ever.
Teachers haven’t gotten less competent at teaching the core subjects either, although they are certainly wasting time and energy bringing political propaganda into the classroom.
The revolving door of school superintendents isn’t to blame–even our current one, despite the fact that she is ripping off taxpayers to the point that some members of the school board should frankly be jailed for conspiracy to defraud taxpayers.
The true blame lies with the Alachua County Schoolboard. Their lack of *BASIC* leadership competence and willpower has left the school program adrift for years, particularly in the last decade. All they do is cluck and posture while accomplishing nothing, kicking every issue down the road until it becomes a disaster, and ignoring the 98% while they focus on the last 2%.
On one hand, we have mentally ill board members such as Sarah Rockwell who are obsessed with transgender bathrooms and fighting the state to keep explicit material in elementary school libraries.
On the other hand, we have a string of frankly racist school board members doing everything they can to push down high-achieving students, because that’s a lot easier than trying to raise anyone else up by fixing the discipline problems. They see the racial achievement gap and their “fix” is to punish the kids at the top by lowering standards, punishing teachers for disciplining bad behavior, and forcing their versions of DEI For Kids by allowing students to progress to the next grade when they should have been held back, or packing magnet and other programs with dubiously qualified students.
The Alachua County School Board has completely failed the citizens of this county, and they are both unwilling and absolutely incapable of fixing the problems they themselves created. The entire board should be dissolved and replaced with state-appointed board members for a period of at least 6 years.
Don’t give me any crap about local representation, because I assure you the school board does NOT represent the local people of Alachua County.
You’re right on target, as a nonpartisan SBAC position is anything but that. The drive to push agendas at any cost is the engine in that boardroom. To be the school with the least discipline referrals written was nothing but a false flag to wave at the principal monthly
meeting at the White House (code for downtown )
Basically telling Teachers not to deal with disruptive, non-learning, failing students that make teaching in that room impossible. Don’t write them up, as you’re the problem, not the student. Inflate the grades now that the Administration acknowledges you’re a gifted teacher. The entire system is helplessly broken.
If you remove charter schools from the list, there are 2803 district schools that received a grade this year. Rawlings came in last, number 2803. Williams came in. At 2797, and Lake Forest was 2798. Metcalfe was 2791. That puts those four schools in the bottom 0.14% of the schools in the state.
The SBAC and the teachers’ unions went idiot hypochondriac with that fake c19
BS too..they just wanted to get paid and stay home and be superhero’s…
Rockwell is still wearing her face diaper 😷 and not giving it up! they hurt the children. Lots of psychological damage done…don’t dismiss it.
College towns used to be progressive. They are now regressive. Because so many non-profits are competing for public and private grant monies. The only way they can grow is to enable and excuse demonic values.
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Alachua County elections are often decided by small, self-interested, and well organized voting blocs. The performance of Alachua County schools would be much better if the greater numbers of other voters spent a little time to inform themselves and actually voted. Yeah, this is another hoary call to good citizenship, yet it is the only way for the majority to overcome the greater influence of a minority.