Hillsborough County school officials announced “a strong upward trajectory in student achievement,” given the state’s release of school grades for the 2024-25 school year.
“These achievements are a result not only of the hard work of our students, teachers, support professionals and school administrators, but also of our laser-like focus on high-quality core instruction in every classroom and intentional progress monitoring to drive these impressive results,” said Van Ayres, Hillsborough County School District superintendent. “We are ready to build on this momentum.”
It’s important to note that the assessment system for Florida schools has undergone significant changes from 2023-24 to the 2024-25 school year. There now are five achievement components and four learning gains components, as well as components for middle school acceleration, graduation rate and college and career acceleration.
Highlights for southeast county schools include one letter upgrade for five of the area’s 12 district-operated high schools. Jumping from B to A, Riverview and Strawberry Crest in Plant City. From C to B, Armwood in Seffner and Lennard in Ruskin. Also reported, steady A grades for Bloomingdale and Newsome; steady B’s, for Durant (Plant City), East Bay (Gibsonton), Spoto (Riverview) and Plant City High; and steady C’s, for Brandon and Sumner (Balm/Riverview).
Overall, Hillsborough has 28 district-operated high schools. Morgan High debuts in Wimauma this year.
Meanwhile, 15 of the 39 district-operated middle schools are in the Osprey Observer circulation area. Grade-changers among them included Mulrennan, up from B to A, and Burnett and Turkey Creek, up from D to C. Progress Village dropped from B to C. Holding steady with A grades, Barrington and Randall; with a B grade, Burns; and with C grades, Dowdell, Eisenhower, Giunta, Mann, Marshall, Rodgers, Shields and Tomlin.
Of the 14 district-operated schools that serve students in kindergarten or prekindergarten through grade eight, Apollo Beach and nearby York Innovation Academy maintained their A grades; Collins, in Riverview, dropped from A to B.
As for district-operated elementary schools, 36 received an A, including Alafia, Bevis, Boyette Springs, Brooker, FishHawk Creek, Lithia Springs, Stowers and Valrico. Walden Lakes in Plant City also made the list, jumping from B to A.
Among the 13 district-operated elementary schools jumping from a C grade to B were Sessums, Summerfield and Symmes elementary schools. Four schools dropped from an A to B, including the one school locally, Brooker Elementary.
In addition to the 27 schools that received B grades districtwide, the majority of elementary schools received C grades. That amounted to 61 schools, including Kingswood, Mango, Palm River, Schmidt, Summerfield Crossing and Yates. All six elementary schools that dropped from a B grade to C were in Southeast Hillsborough County. Dropping to a C were Belmont, Limona, Lincoln, Mintz, Nelson and Seffner.
Rounding out the list, five schools countywide received a D grade, including Wimauma, which dropped two grades from a B.
For the 48 charter schools, or schools not operated by the district, 18 scored an A, 16 scored a B and 12 scored a C. There was one D school (Kids Community College Riverview Southeast) and one F school (Walton Academy). The Patricia J. Sullivan Metropolitan Ministries Partnership School earned its first A grade since opening its doors in 1998 to 28 children living in the Metropolitan Ministries homeless shelter in Tampa.
Local A-grade charter schools are Riverview Academy High School, Riverview Academy of Math and Science, Winthrop Charter School, Valrico Lake Advantage Academy and Bell Creek Academy.
Local B-grade charter schools are RCMA Wimauma Community Academy, Kids Community College Riverview South (K-12), Creekside Charter Academy, Independence Academy, Waterset Charter School, Winthrop College Prep Academy, Southshore Charter Academy and Navigator Academy of Leadership Valrico. Also, Literacy Leadership Technology Academy South.
Local C-grade charter schools are Advantage Academy of Hillsborough, BridgePrep Academy of Riverview, SLAM Academy at Apollo Beach, BridgePrep Academy of Advanced Studies of Hillsborough and Pivot Charter School.
To review and learn more about school grade assessment and the factors that help decide them, visit www.fldoe.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/.
