Miami-Dade Students Excel In Classroom

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami-Dade public school students are making the grade in the classroom.

In a second round of school grades, linked to a high-stakes test that's based primarily on Common Core standards, Miami-Dade had 124 schools graded "A" and 96 schools graded "B".

Thirty seven schools improved their grade from a "D" to a "C" or higher while six schools improved their grade from an "F" to a "C" or higher. There were only eight "F" schools this year compared to 28 last year. Overall,

Overall, Miami-Dade outperformed the rest of the state in the percentage of their schools with "A" and "B" ratings.

Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Miami-Dade is coming of age.

"Particularly at a time when politically, there is much said about immigrants in America. You know, here's a community that is minority majority with a great deal of poverty, 73,000 kids still learning English, 23,000 kids born outside the U.S. and we are outperforming the state as a whole, outperforming other large urban centers across America, with a higher graduation rate, with higher performance in terms of "A," "B" and "C" schools and a lower percentage of failure," said Carvalho.

One shining example of a major improvement was Shadowlawn Elementary, where students struggle with poverty and violence on a daily basis. It went from an "F" to a "B".

"We worked very diligently, doing intervention which was done every day, we worked with small groups and regrouped the students based on their levels," said the school's principal Gwendolyn Haynes-Evans.

Because of the complexity and difficulty of the state's scoring system, Carvalho said they were prepared to see a significant decline but instead the district outperformed all schools in Florida and saw only a decline at the high school level.

"I was very happy but not satisfied," said Carvalho. "We shall not rest in the shadow of yesterday's success, we are already hard at work."

Carvalho was quick to credit teachers for their had work.

"There was a lot of professional development to ensure that the standards were taught very rigorously," said J McCrary Elementary Principal Marie Calvert-Cuba.

Broward County also saw solid grades. There were 62 schools graded "A" in and 63 schools graded "B".

Twenty schools improved their grade from a "D" to a "C" or higher while nine schools improved their grade from an "F" to a "C" or higher. This year there were only 12 "F" schools compared to 32 last year.

Statewide, 741 schools received A grades and 749 schools received a B. A total of 103 schools earned an F grade while 372 schools were given a D. The remaining 1,246 schools got a C grade.