What are the best schools in Florida?
Florida is the fourth largest state in terms of population. As such, it is responsible for educating more than 2.5 million students between the ages of 5 and 18. To meet this responsibility, Florida has established 75 public school districts and spends, on average, nearly $11,000 per pupil annually.
Although the number of Florida school districts is relatively small, there are in fact more than 4,000 separate schools in the state's public school system. Fortunately, Florida has made it relatively easy to identify those schools that have distinguished themselves as belonging on a list of the state's best. Students in several grades take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test each year, an examination that measures mastery of age-appropriate learning standards in the areas of mathematics, writing, and reading. The results on the FCAT allow residents and prospective property buyers to accurately compare the schools in one area to those in another.
The best school in Florida
According to 2011-2012 FCAT results, the best school in Florida is the Pine View School in the city of Osprey, which is served by the Sarasota County Public Schools. The Pine View School educates students from kindergarten through to 12th grade. In the American system of education, students who have completed 12th grade either join the workforce as adults or continue on to university. The average of FCAT scores at Pine View School is the highest in all of Florida. The academic success of Pine View students is explained in part by the student-to-teacher ratio, which currently hovers at just under 18 to 1.
Outstanding Florida elementary schools
Most Florida schools do not span 13 grade levels. Typical elementary schools educate children from the age of five and provide them with six or seven years of education before they move on to middle school and then high school. The best primary schools in Florida are Jacksonville Beach Elementary School, served by Duval County Public Schools, and Freedom 7, situated in Cocoa Beach, a ‘Space Coast’ city served by the Brevard Public Schools. Student-to-teacher ratios at both these schools were below 17 to 1 during the 2011-2012 school year, and their FCAT averages in both reading and maths were above 234, a level that only a handful of Florida public schools have achieved.
Outstanding Florida high schools
Because high schools prepare students for university-level studies, they may be even more important than primary schools in determining the direction of a student's future life. According to US News, there are 30 Florida high schools that have been awarded national gold medals for the quality of their programmes.
The best secondary school in the state, according to a variety of factors, is Miami's Design and Architecture High School. The second best high school state-wide is the Young Women's Preparatory Academy, situated in the same city.
This is not to say that the state's finest high schools are all located in South Florida. Jacksonville, situated in the north-eastern corner of the state, is home to several gold medal high schools including Stanton College Preparatory School and the Paxon School for Advanced Studies.
Families considering relocation are naturally concerned about school quality. Fortunately, Florida boasts a wealth of strong educational institutions at all grade levels and, through the FCAT system, makes them easy to identify.
