New Tampa High School Grades High, Students Prepped For College

By Matt Wiley

It looks as if New Tampa’s high schools have once again received good report cards from the Florida Department of Education (DOE).

According to the annual school grades report for Florida high schools released on December 18, more than half of Hillsborough County’s high schools (14 of 27) received an “A” grade, including Paul R. Wharton High, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

Although elementary and middle school grades were released in August, the DOE waits until December each year to release the previous school year’s high school grades, so that additional factors (such as graduation rates) can be included when determining a high school’s grade.

This year marks the first year that Wharton has received an ‘A’ grade since 2010.

“(Receiving an ‘A’) is fantastic,” says Wharton principal Bradley Woods. “It’s a confirmation of how great a school we have here, from our faculty and staff to our students and parents.”

Woods notes that the school was able to raise the graduation rate of Wharton’s “at-risk” students, or those at risk of dropping out, a factor that kept the school at a “B” grade last year.

Meanwhile, Freedom High, located on Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms, once again received a “B,” which it has maintained since 2010. Neither high school has fallen below a “B” since 2009. Freedom and Wharton both improved their graduation rates from 75-percent for both schools in 2012 to 77 percent and 79 percent, respectively, for 2013.

Other factors included in determining high school grades are FCAT 2.0 scores, postsecondary readiness in math and reading, the graduation rate of the school’s “at-risk” students and the improvement of the lowest performing 25-percent of students at each school.

 New Tampa Students Better Prepared For College?

Many high school students in New Tampa are more prepared for college than students across the State of Florida, according to data recently released by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).

In a December 3 press release, Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) announced that results from Florida’s entry-level college placement tests — including the College Placement Test, SAT and ACT — show that schools in Hillsborough are performing higher than other districts in mathematics, reading and writing, including Freedom High and Paul R. Wharton High right here in New Tampa.

In fact, the overall results for Freedom and Wharton are above both the State and District average scores, too.

“This is great news in a district that is focused on college and career readiness,’’ said Hillsborough School Superintendent MaryEllen Elia in the press release. “For a high school diploma to be meaningful, you should be able to get into college and be ready to do college-level work. More and more of our students are achieving that goal.”

The results in the report are based upon how many students at each school who took college placement tests scored above the “cut-off score.” Students who test below that score on their respective tests must take remedial classes in either math, reading or writing when they do enter college.

During the 2012-13 school year at Freedom, 273 degree-seeking students took one of the three placement tests. In math, 84.9 percent of those tested scored at or above the cut-off score. In reading, 88.2 percent scored at or above the cut off, while 90.8 scored at or above the cut-off in writing. Of those students tested, 80.4 percent scored above the cut-off in all three subjects.

“We were excited (to see the report),” says Freedom assistant principal Rosemary Owens. “It’s truly a distinction and a testament to the hard work of our students and teachers.”

At nearby Wharton High, of the 264 degree-seeking students, 78.4 percent scored above the cut-off in math, 82.2 percent above the reading cut-off and 83.7 percent of students tested scored above the cut-off in writing. Of those, 73.1 percent scored above the cut-off in all three subjects.

Compare those numbers with the 7,751 students tested across HCPS, where 77.3 scored at or above the cut-off in math, 87 percent were at or above the cut-off in reading, 87.9 percent were at or above in writing and 72.5 percent were at or above in all three subjects.

Across the state, of the 82,576 degree-seeking students, 70.8 percent scored at or above in math, 86.3 percent were at or above in reading, 86.1 percent were at or above in writing, but only 66.4-percent scored at or above the cut-off score in all three.

However, not included in these results are students who did not go to college or who went to private and out-of-state institutions after graduating from a Florida public high school. The results reflect only those students who graduated from a public Florida high school and attended an in-state, public college or university in the year following high school graduation.

For more information about school test results and what they mean, visit FLDOE.org or SDHC.k12.fl.us.