Wesley Chapel's High Schools Keep Grades Steady

By Matt Wiley

Florida’s high school grades are out and Wesley Chapel’s two high schools have maintained their grades from the previous school year.

According to the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH, located off Mansfield Blvd.) has held onto its top ‘A’ grade for the 2013-14 school year, which it  has earned every year since 2010. Wesley Chapel High (WCH, located off Wells Rd.) also kept its grade steady at a ‘B,’ which it has earned since 2011. 

WRH is one of just five high schools in the county to have received an ‘A’ for the 2013-14 school year. Both WCH and WRH are two of only nine schools in Pasco County to maintain their respective letter grades. 

“I’m pleased that most of our schools either maintained or raised their grades, especially when the bar was set higher this year,” said Pasco superintendent Kurt Browning in a December 18 release, referencing the increased education standards in Florida that were implemented for the 2013-14 school year, leading up to this year’s more rigorous nation-wide Common Core standards. This year also features a new standardized testing system, based upon those standards.

While elementary and middle school grades are released in the fall, high school grades come out in December to allow for additional factors to be weighed into each school’s score. Among the criteria affecting high school grades are the performance of each school’s students on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT, which was administered for the final time this past school year), as well as graduation rates.

At WRH, the graduation rate actually dropped from 91 percent to 89 percent from 2012-13 to 2013-14, but its students’ strong performances on the last FCAT test and the student body’s participation and completion of Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment classes helped keep the high school at the top of the FDOE charts, says WRH principal Robyn White.

“It’s not about getting the ‘A,’” White says. “It’s about maintaining it. That’s the tough part. Graduation and dropout rates can make you nervous.”

White says that one of the keys to maintaining the ‘A’ this year was working to increase engagement between students and their curriculum. She explains that this past school year, WRH teachers required students to do more research in their studies, instead of just “spoon-feeding” them information to reproduce on a test. The results showed that, although the extra research requires students to work a little harder, they definitely ended up learning more.

Meanwhile, WCH principal Carin Nettles says that she’s very pleased with her school’s grade this year, especially since WCH’s graduation rate climbed from 78 percent to 83 percent.

“I’m really happy with (the grade),” she says. “We do a lot of work all year to try to perform well in all categories. It’s sometimes tough to keep up with all of them, but we’ve done a good job.”

Nettles attributes this year’s ‘B’ grade to the hard work of WCH’s teachers and staff.

“Our teachers meet each week to talk about best practices,” Nettles explains. “They sit down together and discuss what’s working and what’s not and then tweak their approaches. Doing what’s best for the kids is always where we focus.”

For more info, including the full DOE report, please visit SchoolGrades.FLDOE.org.