Lake County Schools remains a B school district, despite months of students and staff rebounding from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had to overcome some challenges, particularly regarding student attendance, and we did so significantly,” Superintendent Diane Kornegay said, reflecting on the difficulty some families faced with getting students to school regularly after months of disruption from COVID-related quarantines. “Our teachers, administrators and staff were attentive to the needs of our students, and our grade reflects that.”
Lake’s grade was included today in the Florida Department of Education’s statewide release of school grades for the 2021-2022 academic year. It was the first full school grade data release since 2019 due to the lack of assessments in the 2019-2020 school year and the opt-in nature of the 2020-2021 school grades.
Kornegay said the district’s B grade represents a commitment to steady academic growth and improvement in Lake, where the graduation rate has surpassed her 90% goal for two consecutive years and student acceleration opportunities have been expanded. Lake students can dual-enroll at Lake-Sumter State College, choose from a variety of Advanced Placement courses for college credit, earn an Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma, and starting this fall, participate in the International Baccalaureate Program.
Additionally, a record number of students are earning industry certifications through the district’s Career & Technical Education programs. One example is the construction academies at Leesburg, Eustis and South Lake high schools, where students learn hands-on, high demand skills by building a home for a local family in partnership with Lake-Sumter Habitat for Humanity.
“I am very proud of our district,” Kornegay said. “I celebrate what our students and staff have accomplished so far, and look forward to working with teachers and administrators to provide more opportunities for our students to get excited about learning and to prepare them for college and careers once they leave our schools.”
All school and district grades can be viewed on the Florida Department of Education website at this link: https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/
Original source can be found here.
