(This article was revised to correct Polk County Public Schools’ letter grade score for the 2024-25 school year.)
The Florida Department of Education released statewide test scores for the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking on June 26.
The data show Polk County Public Schools saw 52% of students perform at-or-above grade level on English language arts and 50% on mathematics, improving in nearly every grade level. Those performance scores increased by 4 percentage points each over the previous year.
For mathematics in grades three through eight, Polk ranked 61st out of Florida’s 67 school districts. In English, grades three through 10, Polk ranked 55th.
Curious how your school did? Check out final scores here.
The interactive database will let you compare year over year progress or lack there of and see where your the district and your school compares to others.
Highlights: Grade by grade, districtwide for Polk County
What about school grades for Polk County?
The test scores play a large part in the annual school grades, which are typically released in mid- to late July. Last year, Polk County received a B grade, after falling just one percentage point shy of a B the previous year.
In 2024-25, Polk County had no F schools for the second consecutive year, and the number of D schools fell from 12 in 2022-23 to seven in 2024-25.
School grades may incorporate up to 12 components, with five based on achievement in English/language arts, math, science and social studies. The state also measures overall learning gains, gains of the lowest 25% of students, middle school acceleration, graduation rate and college and career acceleration, according to previous reporting.
Each component counts for up to 100 points in the overall calculation. The points are added, and then the total is divided by the maximum number of possible points to determine the percentage earned.
Previous reporting from The Ledger’s Sara-Megan Walsh and Gary White was used in this report.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk test scores improve in most categories. See how your school did
Reporting by Andy Kuppers, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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By Andy Kuppers, Lakeland Ledger | USA TODAY Network
