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🏫 Okaloosa and Walton Counties both earned A ratings from the Florida Department of Education for their school districts.
🎓 Top-performing schools include Northwest Florida Ballet Academie and Magnet Innovation Center, while several Fort Walton Beach elementary schools received lower marks.
📈 College and career readiness varies widely, with non-traditional schools leading and others falling behind in preparing students for life after high school.
Both Walton and Okaloosa County School Districts earned A ratings from the Florida Department of Education.
Okaloosa County announced the victory in a press release on Monday, highlighting the graduation rates of its six high school diploma-granting institutions.
“The growth and consistency we’re seeing across our schools is a testament to the dedication of our students, teachers, staff, and school leaders. Maintaining high standards while continuing to improve year after year is no small task—it reflects a shared commitment to excellence and a belief in what our students can achieve. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made and even more excited about where we’re headed,” Superintendent Marcus Chambers said in a prepared statement.
Schools are assigned a grade based on what percentage of total points they can achieve across a total of twelve categories. These categories, which included standardized testing results, graduation rates, and the number of students who take an advanced class for college, workforce certificates or something similar, then create a statistic to judge the school by.
All these numbers that create the statistic then spit out a final letter grade.
All but two of Walton County’s 14 schools received an A rating. of the 35 schools in the data set provided by the Florida Department of Education, about half, 17, of Okaloosa County School District Schools received an A.
Walton County has roughly 10,000 students. Okaloosa County is approaching 30,000 students in its district.
In consolidated, middle and high schools, the following percentage of total points corresponds with a letter grade.
A | greater than 64% of total points
B | 57-63%
C | 41-53%
D | 32-40%
F | <31%
In elementary schools, the numbers are slightly different, but essentially work the same way.
A | greater than 62% of total points
B | 54-61%
C | 41-53%
D | 32-40%
F | <31%
Based on these numbers, you can see which schools on the Emerald Coast are the best.
Meanwhile, the worst-performing schools on the Emerald Coast are almost all exclusively elementary schools in Fort Walton Beach
A key part of the school grades that Okaloosa County School officials highlighted to me last year was the need to improve the college and career readiness of their high school population. That means making sure as many children as possible take AP, AICE or IB classes, enroll in and pass a career certification or get credit for preparing to enter the military.
The companion score to that goal, called college and career readiness or acceleration, is listed among the reams of data provided by the State Department of Education.
The three highest performing schools, Magnet Innovation Center (South Walton), Collegiate High School (Niceville) and Seaside Neighborhood School (South Walton) are all non-traditional district schools – and all achieve 100% college or career readiness.
Trailing the top three in readiness were Paxton (91%), Niceville (83%), Freeport (83%) and South Walton (81%).
Destin High (41%), Baker School (46%) and Choctawhatchee High School (59%) brought up the back of the pack in readiness.
This is our initial dive into the data. We’ll have more for you as time allows.
Pro Communi Bono
