With education news focusing lately on budget shortfalls, teacher firings and book bans, Lake County Schools is celebrating academic gains in the latest state assessment results released last week by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE).
Lake students showed improvement in all tested areas: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, according to a press release from LCS.
The 19th largest school district in Florida serves around 43,000 students across 50 locations. LCS's instruction includes traditional public schools, charter schools, a virtual school and other specialty schools.
In a June 30 speech at The Villages, Gov. Ron DeSantis promised a pay raise to teachers and law enforcement amid federal budget cuts to education.
Among the achievements was a 15 percentage point increase in Algebra 1 proficiency. A 7 percentage point increase in English Language Arts in grades 9 and 10 and an overall increase in English Language Arts of 4 percentage points were also noted.
Students also showed a 4 percentage point increase on the civics end-of-course exam.
The district attributes the success to several key initiatives:
Teacher collaboration through professional learning teams.
An intensive focus on grade and/or course standards that define what a student must know and be able to do to achieve mastery.
Data-driven instruction to identify and address learning gaps.
How much have students improved over the last year?
English Language Arts (2024-25)
Overall ELA: +4 percentage points
Grades 3-5: +4 percentage points
Grades 6-8: +5 percentage points
Grades 9-10: + 7 percentage points
Mathematics (2024-25)
Overall Mathematics: +4 percentage points
Grades 3-5: +4 percentage points
Grades 6-8: +2 percentage points
Algebra 1 EOC: +15 percentage points
Science (2024-2025)
Grade 5: +3 percentage points
Grade 8: +2 percentage points
Biology 1 EOC: +4 percentage points
Social Studies (2024-25)
Civics EOC: +4 percentage points
U.S. History EOC: +2 percentage points
How Lake will 'build on this momentum'
“These results are a testament to the incredible work happening in our classrooms every day,” said Superintendent Diane Kornegay in LCS's media release. "To build on this momentum, Lake County Schools has new plans for the 2025-2026 school year."
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