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Old 08-16-2007, 01:04 PM
 
Location: south Florida
63 posts, read 366,030 times
Reputation: 66

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Can anyone tell me what the deal is with PSL schools? It's very confusing to me. If they recently established new school zones and PSL is essentially diversified, then how is it that in this article it is reported that the new zoning has caused a racial divide? Am I reading it wrong? Can someone who has children in school in St Lucie county explain?


FCAT plunge tied to revamp (broken link)
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Old 08-16-2007, 02:33 PM
 
17,290 posts, read 29,283,316 times
Reputation: 8690
Quote:
Originally Posted by BarryU404 View Post
Can anyone tell me what the deal is with PSL schools? It's very confusing to me. If they recently established new school zones and PSL is essentially diversified, then how is it that in this article it is reported that the new zoning has caused a racial divide? Am I reading it wrong? Can someone who has children in school in St Lucie county explain?


FCAT plunge tied to revamp (broken link)

St. Lucie County used to bus its kids around in order to meet federally mandated integration orders held over from the 70s when St. Lucie County refused to integrate schools. Ft. Pierce has a large minority population while Port St. Lucie has always been quite white. Anyway, white kids from PSL used to be bussed up to Ft. Pierce schools to racially balance the schools, while blacks from Ft. Pierce were shipped to PSL schools.

Because there's no longer any resistance to desegregation, St. Lucie County essentially split the school district into three zones. Kids in Port St. Lucie no longer go to Ft. Pierce, but that also means kids from Ft. Pierce no longer come down to PSL.

Because the success of a school depends largely on its student body (and how much emphasis is put on education and studying at home), the generally poorer student body (with many migrant families in the mix) that hails from Ft. Pierce has seen an attendant drop in FCAT performance in Ft. Pierce schools since PSL kids are no longer there to help beef up the scores.

If I'm not mistaken, either all or the overwhelming majority of schools that saw FCAT and letter-grade declines have been in Ft. Pierce.
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Old 08-16-2007, 03:49 PM
 
Location: Port St. Lucie and Okeechobee, FL
1,307 posts, read 5,486,962 times
Reputation: 1116
There is wisdom in what TriMT7 said, but it is conventional wisdom from past days. I read the article carefully, and it states that racial mixes and poverty levels are comparable between the districts. In fact, it stated that the two Port St. Lucie zones have more black students than the Fort Pierce zone, and that school lunch programs, an indicator of poverty, are about equal.

DSo, if poverty and race are not what is causing the Fort Pierce schools to drop so drastically, what is? The article gives a hint near the end when it says that the school district intends to improve the resources available at the Fort Pierce schools. No doubt, the brand new (and beautiful) Fort Pierce Central being constructed right now will hep.

But, I think there are simply flaws in the way the FCAT school scores are calculated. I've written about this before, if you do a search I won't have to repeat myself. But, the short version is that there are many factors other than the actual education a student receives that affect a school's score. The type of security the school has, the graduation rate of the students and much more has an effect (graduation rate is determined more by a stable population, and the article mentions that there is a transient population involved). I have also discovered that a tiny lack or increase in a target student group that makes up a small fraction of the total students can lower the entire school's grade by a whole letter grade. In other words, if about 15 students don't make a certain improvement, the whole school can go from a C to a D, for example.

I wouldn;t worry about it. There have been St. Lucie County students attending Harvard and Yale for many, many years. If you and your student put the effort into it, a good education will be the result.
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Old 08-16-2007, 04:56 PM
 
22 posts, read 115,891 times
Reputation: 19
I just spent the past few days in PSL as we are going to be relocating.
Like every area, there are down sides.
PSL schools have some really good schools as well. There is a new high school that was just built and the teachers and staff are very good.

I think alot of the bad ratings come from the fact that Ft Pierce is close. There is a large population of underprivlidged individuals in the area. Law is working to clean up the area but it is hard to fight lack of money and drugs.
It is still not as bad as Gary Indiana.

Do the research, listen to those that know on the boards, call the schools, and take a tour.
You can find a good education in St Lucie County if you stay in the right areas.
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Old 08-16-2007, 06:11 PM
 
Location: south Florida
63 posts, read 366,030 times
Reputation: 66
Thanks for all the information - much appreciated
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