Florida has waived testing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Florida Department of Education recently released new graduation rates for school districts and the numbers cracked 90%. Of course there area few caveats. One, the figures cover the 2019-2020 school year which ended amid the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The state also notes the rates a sizeable number of students who benefitted because statewide exams were waived. Still all those caveats don’t fully explain the big gains made in the rural school district of Jefferson County, which boasted its highest graduation rate in decades.
The Jefferson County school district consists of one school, grades K-12 under one roof. But the district has long struggled with its public education system, to the point where, about four years ago, the state effectively ordered it to hand over operations to a private company. Since then, Jefferson-Somerset Academy has slowly seen its students make progress. During the 2019-