Volusia County Schools earns A under new 12-component district grade; officials cite multi‑year gains

Volusia County Schools earned an A district grade for the 2024–25 reporting cycle, Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin told the school board at a July 29 workshop, marking the first time the district has received an A under the current 12‑component state grading system.

“This is a historic moment that we get to share as a community,” Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin said during the presentation. She and district assessment staff attributed the rating to steady, multiyear gains across academic achievement, learning gains and other accountability components.

The superintendent and district assessment staff said the district’s 2024–25 result represents the highest point total the district has recorded under the current system. Officials reported seven of the 12 district grading components reached their highest levels in county history, and that every school in the district received an A, B or C — leaving no D or F schools or schools labeled for turnaround by the Florida Department of Education.

District officials emphasized three measurable features behind the rating: high participation in state testing, steady growth across multiple years, and targeted school‑level strategies.

• Participation: District staff reported that Volusia tested 97% of enrolled students for accountability purposes in recent releases, above the 95% participation threshold the state uses to determine whether to assign a district or school grade. “We have to test the students in order to have an accurate measure of student learning,” district assessment staff said.

• Multiyear improvement: Staff presented a trend line beginning in the 2021–22 school year showing steady gains from a baseline of roughly 57% of total possible points to the district’s current A performance. Officials stressed the rating was not a single‑year spike but the result of sustained work since the 2021–22 school year.

• School‑level strategies: Presenters credited a mix of interventions including expanded literacy initiatives, targeted professional development, extended learning opportunities, new career academies and strengthened transition supports. The presentation named several schools with significant jumps: Edith Stark Elementary moved from a D to an A and was one of only two elementary schools statewide to make that leap; Enterprise Elementary rose from a C to an A; Mainland High School earned its first A in school history; and Taylor Middle High earned its first B.

District staff clarified that the district grade and component calculations include every public school student within Volusia County boundaries — traditional public schools, district‑authorized charter schools, alternative sites and residential juvenile facilities — when those students are tested. On graduation rate, staff said the district’s overall reported graduation rate includes charter and alternative school students and that, for reporting purposes, those students are part of the Local Education Agency’s counts. When district staff recalculated the graduation rate limited to the district’s brick‑and‑mortar high schools, they said the figure would be higher (staff cited a 96.3% figure for a subset of schools in the cohort referenced during the presentation).

Board members and the superintendent repeatedly framed the rating as the product of a multi‑year strategy and acknowledged public misinformation about testing and student exclusion. Members asked for and received clarification that schools may not “withdraw” or deliberately exclude students from testing to inflate results; staff and board members described state rules, alternate assessments and IEP accommodations that govern who tests and how those results are counted.

The presentation also reviewed changes in the state accountability system over 25 years, noting the district’s last A under an older scale was in 2008–09 and explaining how component counts expanded over time (from three components in 1999 to 12 components today). Staff previewed the state’s “escalator clause,” which raises cut scores if a given school type (elementary, middle, high, combination) reaches a 75% threshold of A/B designations statewide; that change will modestly raise the minimum point thresholds for some letter grades next year.

No formal board action or vote took place on the district grade itself during the workshop; the item was an informational presentation and discussion.

Officials said current district work will continue into the 2025–26 school year to deepen gains and respond to the escalator clause so the district maintains and strengthens A‑level performance.