Researching Schools can be a daunting task. We are working on a concise webpage for your convenience. Until then, here are the resources that we use:
School Performance.
The following link is a concise resource for evaluating a prospective school with information published by the state: School Accountability Grades. This will take you through a sequence of options. If you are new to the area and looking for a place to live, we recommend to start by searching elementary schools as these usually are smaller districts and their performance is generally a leading indicator of the middle and high school performance. The report will reveal test scores, school grade, % of free and reduced lunch students, and % of minority students.
How to Evaluate Schools – Test Scores.
To organize the test scores, we rank the schools by quartile. For example, in Orange County the bottom scoring 25% of schools scored a 508 or lower. The next higher group of schools scored between 509 and 550, followed by the better group which scored between a 551 and 598. The top 25% of schools scored between a 599 and 656.
School Grades.
Schools Grades are different than simply adding the scoring the FCAT test because the school grades also consider improvement year over year. In other words, if the students are making overall improvements in their learning, the schools grade will improve. This can be an indication of the support, resources, and leadership allocated to the school.
For more information, there are some guides available directly from the Department of Education website.
What School am I zoned for?
Orange County: https://www.ocps.net/Parents/Pages/FindaSchool.aspx
Seminole County: http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/Schools/SchoolInformation/SchoolZoneSearch.aspx
Lake County: http://lake.k12.fl.us/1651103109591867/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=62888
Volusia County: http://ww2.volusia.k12.fl.us/zoning/zoning.asp
