Hillsborough Students Get Bragging Rights in Assessment of Urban Districts
www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/
Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is out with the math and reading scores for fourth and eighth graders in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA).
The first TUDA was offered in 2002 and is given every other year. It assesses the performance of public school students and compares scores for 21 urban districts across the nation. It continues to grow, and every district that was invited to participate this year agreed to do so.
2011 is the first year the Hillsborough County school district participated, and the results show Hillsborough students get some bragging rights. It turns out they largely outperformed their peers in the other 20 urban districts that took part, and performed above the national and state average.
In an email announcing the results, Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia wrote, “We have participated in NAEP (commonly referred to as The Nation’s Report Card) for decades. Those results are reported on the national and state level. TUDA is an initiative of NAEP, and the TUDA scores are reported at the district level. Our results are impressive across the board.”
Hillsborough touts its scores on the district website as well as the district’s new YouTube channel.
Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said, “I applaud the students in Hillsborough County who have shown they can perform at the highest levels in the nation on NAEP Reading. Under Superintendent Elia’s leadership, I expect that students in both fourth and eighth grade will continue to outperform their national counterparts.”
Hillsborough’s fourth graders posted the highest overall reading score. “These scores show that our students, teachers, principals, staff, and our district leadership are getting tremendous results in the classroom,” wrote Elia. “When we all work together, we get great results.”
Miami-Dade County was the only other Florida school district to participate and it fared better than average.