Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvahlo made the announcement at Miami Northwestern Senior High, which received its first ever performance grade of "A."
"Today we are celebrating at a school that was labeled as a failing school for many years," said Carvalho. "We have seen that our students, with the support of family, community and organizations like Florida International University and JP Morgan Chase, can move from being known as failures to being champions. You are looking at success today – in students, teachers and administrators."
For the third consecutive school year, M-DCPS has no "F" senior high schools. During the 2008 legislative session Senate Bill 1908 significantly changed the way senior high schools were to be graded beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
The bill required high school grades to include alternate measures of student achievement in addition to the vital foundation of Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) results in grades 9, 10, and 11.
The additional measures provide an equal focus on college readiness, access to and performance on accelerated coursework, and graduation rates for all students and for those who are academically at-risk.
Area high schools for Miami Lakes and surrounding areas boast only "A" and "B" letter grades. American Senior High School, Mater Lakes Academy High School, Hialeah Miami Lakes High School, Hialeah Gardens Senior High School, and Miami Lakes Educational Center all earned "A" grades and Barbara Goleman Senior High School earned a "B."
Some area high schools have seen improvements from "D's" to "A's" in the last 3 years alone.
"We are celebrating the excellent results of these schools, which represent our community," said School Board Chair Perla Tabares Hantman. "We have seen many of these students, most of whom have had to learn a new language, completely adapt to a new culture, perservere, and excel in school. We would like to congratulate our principals, teachers, staff and everyone involved in achieving this outstanding honor."
Miami-Dade County Public Schools even outperformed the state in the percentage of "A" and "B" senior high schools with 86 percent of schools receiving an "A" or "B" and 95 percent of schools receiving a "C" or better. A total of 60 percent of senior high schools earned an "A" grade as opposed to the state's 48 percent.
Despite the reduced economic resources available to the district and students, M-DCPS students continued to outscore their counterparts in many of the largest schools districts in the U.S. including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington and Dallas.
Student achievement placed Miami-Dade among the highest-achieving school districts nationally in 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics on the National Assessment for Educational Progress, administered to students who attend schools in 21 large urban districts.
This is M-DCPS' third year of participation in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) program, which compares the achievement of students in large urban districts that face similar challenges with regards to poverty and high risk populations.
"We are rightfully proud of our students' performance, which places them solidly among the highest in the nation," said Carvahlo. "The Miami-Dade School Board has empowered our educators to inspire students to achieve, and today's announcement confirms just how well they are performing with the support of teachers, parents, and the community behind them. While we lead urban America, much work needs to be done."
Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools said, " These new results confirm that the M-DCPS is among the highest performing urban school districts in the nation, attributable to the District's outstanding leadership, staff, teachers, and hard-working students."