Miami-Dade schools receive new grades

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A South Florida school district received good news about several schools that were once wrongly graded.

It turns out a major math error incorrectly left 31 Miami-Dade schools with low grades.

The wrongful calculations did not consider students learning English as a second language and students who struggle with disabilities. "Last Friday afternoon, I received probably the most interesting call that I've received all year long," said Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. "The call was to inform me that the State Department of Education, in its calculations of letter grades, had forgotten to include the credit that level one and level two students should have earned."

Two weeks later after the Department of Education gave their initial grade to the schools, the schools are now revising the correct grade earned. "Because, this year, our staff and the students worked harder then we have," said Jose de Diego Middle School principal Yaset Fernandez.

The state has now recalculated its report card for Miami-Dade schools, resulting in the following upgrades:

B to A: 13 schools

C to B: 9 schools

D to C: 7 schools

F to D: 2 schools

In Broward County, 17 schools received a better grade and 11 schools went from a B school to an A school.

Principal Verona McCarthy from Ruben Dario Middle School is happy to know that her school is now an A school for a third year. "Consecutively three years now an A," she said.

Allapattah Middle School was one of the schools in Miami-Dade wrongly graded with an F.

Carvalho is glad that the schools' grades have been changed, but said the State Department of Education should have got it right the first time. He plans on launching his own investigation.

Administrators in Broward County have not commented.

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