State of the District: Citrus County reports higher graduation rate, targets to offset state grading scale changes

Citrus County's leadership presented the district's State of the District for 2026, reporting incremental academic gains alongside new state grading-scale adjustments that will make maintaining a B more difficult.

District staff said October FTE enrollment was 15,053 and described strategic goals centered on student achievement, learning gains, closing achievement gaps, graduation rate and acceleration through 2028. The district reported its overall district grade rose from a C to a B in the prior year and noted five schools earned school-recognition funds for grade increases.

Staff explained the state's "escalator clause," which raises grade thresholds when many schools statewide move up; as a result the share of correct marks required to hold a B increased and staff said the district must target roughly 25 percentage points across several performance components to preserve a B under the new scale. In concrete terms, a 57% that previously equaled a B will be treated as a C under the escalated scale and staff said the district now must reach about 60% in key measures to keep a B.

Third grade: Ms. Johnson presented detailed third-grade FAST data. Of 1,211 third graders who took the FAST (PM3) assessment, 973 passed and 238 did not; of those 238, 142 met "good cause" exemptions (for example ELL status or IEPs). After good-cause promotions and summer re-testing/portfolio pathways, the district reported 92% of the cohort were promoted to fourth grade and 96 students (about 8%) were retained.

Math and algebra: Board and staff flagged a contrast between middle- and high-school algebra performance. The district reported strong middle-school algebra outcomes (one slide showed a 93% rate of students scoring a 3 or higher in middle-school algebra) but weaker high-school results. To address this, the district hired Josh Lambert as a secondary math specialist to create curriculum maps and common assessments aligned to state instructional guides. Lambert said common assessments exposed pacing issues and that the district will use assessment results, adjusted curriculum maps and in-class instructional strategies (including collaborative "vertical classroom" practices and targeted professional learning) to improve high-school outcomes.

Acceleration and access: Staff described efforts to expand CTE pathways, increase middle-school enrollment in Algebra I and broaden dual-enrollment access through articulation agreements with College (CF) and talks with UF and Saint Leo. The district said CF agreed to allow a cohort online course in high schools and to reduce some GPA/test thresholds, enabling more students to take dual-enrollment credit on campus.

Other items: The presentation reviewed adoption of a K-2 UFLI phonics program to boost early reading, growing home-education numbers, an increase in the district's acceleration metric at the high-school level, and support for AI pilots (including Microsoft Reading Coach) aimed at struggling readers.

What happens next: Staff said they will focus interventions on the white-box metrics that feed district grade calculations, continue common-assessment use to align instruction with state benchmarks, expand dual-enrollment and CTE offerings and return to the board with data-driven updates and policy recommendations where needed.