Lee Today

Of the 8,007 Polk County students who took part in the 2022-23 school year FAST, 32.1% met the testing standard while 4.1% exceeded expectations, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Polk County's proficiency level in the 2022-23 school year was 36.2%, 12.7% lower than the state's average of 48.9%.

During the 2022-23 school year, Lafayette County students fared the best on the Geometry portion of the FSA, with 73.9% of them succeeding. Meanwhile Gadsden County students did worst on Geometry, with 15.3% of the students passing the test.

There were 113,875 students enrolled in Polk County schools in the 2022-23 school year.

According to WalletHub's analysis, Florida is ranked 9th out of 50 states in terms of its public school quality and safety.

After the pandemic, Florida registered a decline in students' performance, especially in mathematics-related areas.

While Florida public school students saw gains in math on the 2022-2023 FAST, their performance in ELA was slightly lower than in the previous school year. Math scores remained around 55% success rate, while ELA scores hovered around 50%.

In 2022, Florida replaced the paper-based FSA with the computer-based Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). Administered three times a year between kindergarten and 10th grade, the FAST is supposed to provide a faster and more individualized feedback on students’ performance than its predecessor.

School Year	Students who met standards (%)	Students who exceeded standards (%)	Total Enrolment
2022-23	32.1%	4.1%	113,875