Sarasota County School District
K–8 Enrollment: 29,183
Number of K–8 Schools: 31
District Grade: A
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Discover the Full Success Story
Learn more about Sarasota’s data culture, achievements, and success with i‑Ready
K–8 Enrollment: 29,183
Number of K–8 Schools: 31
District Grade: A
Sarasota County School District, one of Florida’s top-performing districts, has earned an A from the Florida Commissioner of Education since 2004, the first year Florida began grading districts.
Sarasota has performed well year after year because its dedicated educators do not rest on their laurels. When K–8 administrators felt that the assessment programs they were using weren’t rigorous enough to prepare their students for the new state standards, they switched to i‑Ready, Curriculum Associates' comprehensive assessment and instruction program.
Since i‑Ready was implemented in the 2015–2016 school year, Sarasota has:
Sarasota is distinguished by how they share their i‑Ready data, structure differentiated learning, approach professional learning, and encourage a growth mindset in educators and students alike.
Sarasota strategically shares information, goals, expectations, and results with stakeholders at numerous levels. The district’s APD is publicly available online to anyone who wants to see and understand Sarasota’s i‑Ready data.
Clear communication helps foster a sense of community and shared purpose. For example, when parents told Dr. LaShawn Frost, the principal of Sarasota’s Booker Middle School, that they had concerns about i‑Ready, Frost and her team held an “i‑Ready Parent University,” where they showed parents how the new assessment would help all their children—whether they were on, below, or above grade level.
“They were sold,” said Frost. “They realized the importance of having this information and using it to support their student particularly and closing some of the achievement gaps for all kids.”
Developing and implementing differentiated instruction can seem daunting. “The piece of differentiation that’s hardest is, ‘Alright, I know my kids all need different things, but how can I possibly find the time to arrange for three or four lessons to happen at once?’” said Sue Meckler, director of Sarasota Middle School curriculum and instruction.
Data collected from i‑Ready enables Sarasota teachers to put students with similar academic struggles together for small group instruction. The Teacher Toolbox gives educators targeted resources (supplemental lessons, activities, assignments, etc.) that they can use and distribute to students based on their unique learning needs.
Sarasota choose i‑Ready because it’s a comprehensive program that offers assessments, instruction, and professional learning resources. Sarasota educators have participated in Curriculum Associates’ professional development sessions about using i‑Ready as well as training about data best practices, such as Analyzing Data to Prioritize Needs and Data-Driven Instructional Planning.
Sarasota also has their own robust in-house professional learning program and dedicated professional learning specialists at the school and district levels. “We find our expert teachers, we find our expert staff, we make sure we provide things, and we listen to our teachers and try to find out what they need,” said Cameron Parker, an assistant principal at Sarasota’s Booker Middle School. “We also make sure in our professional learning communities that our teachers talk about data and share what they’re doing.”
Growth is a big deal in Sarasota. In fact, the district has 20 subcommittees that focus on growth and supporting high-expectation–driven teaching. Meckler made it clear during a February 2019 webinar, “Six Steps to Building a Data Culture,” that Sarasota educators and administrators practice the growth mindset they teach.
She described how Sarasota’s leaders are committed to maintaining the district’s high performance, but they’ll also be putting even more effort into closing the district’s achievement gap. “Our district message is actually this: ‘Every student, every day, whatever it takes.’ And then I like to add these three little words, ‘and then some,’ because I think it's that ‘and then some’ that takes us to that next level for every kid.”
—Dr. LaShawn Frost, Principal, Booker Middle School
Learn more about Sarasota’s data culture, achievements, and success with i‑Ready