The one we missed on DU: DOE acknowledges, explains mistakes in Florida school grades

The Florida Department of Education on Monday acknowledged that it miscalculated school grades across Florida while local education officials said the mistake will fuel more public distrust in the state's student-accountability system that has been under increasing attack in recent months.

DOE's mistake centered on its failure to use one new piece of the complicated grading formula that it had revised earlier this year, officials said Monday. That piece of the formula aimed to give schools extra credit if struggling students made significant gains on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

When state officials realized that some students had been left out of that part of the calculation, they revised grades for elementary and middle schools that had been released July 11.

The new, correct calculations boosted marks for 213 campuses statewide, including 28 in Central Florida, or about 8 percent of those graded schools, DOE announced late Friday.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-23/features/os-florida-school-grade-miscalculations-20120723_1_school-grades-appeal-grades-fcat-scores