Orange County Public Schools gives State of the Schools address

Superintendent addresses achievements since FSA problems

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County School Board chair Bill Sublette and superintendent Barbara Jenkins applauded teachers, students, and administrators during the State of the Schools address but closed by saying there will always be room to grow.

After statewide problems with the launch of the Florida Standards Assessments tests, Jenkins said this year the problems have been corrected.

Sublette said he is confident that in time the FSA will be validated, but understands the initial glitches affected many students and parents in the district.

"We've certainly seen those in the FSA, my children have been a victim of it, the viewers' children have been victims of that and that's unfortunate. That could've been avoided it's really been poor management on the state's level on rolling out the FSA assessment, tremendously poor management," said Sublette.

Jenkins said the board is open to a conversation with state leaders about revisions to several statutes.

"The issuing of single letter grades to describe an entire school, we believe we've outgrown that. That we need something more substantial for our communities and more accurate," said Jenkins.

In the meantime, OCPS celebrated a 90 percent graduation rate, that's skyrocketed from 49 percent in 2000.

"Our teachers are capable, our students are capable, we just have to master what is currently in place with the accountability system and the testing system, but we also want to help transform it," said Jenkins.