The Brief
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More than 60% of Florida students are performing at or above grade level in math and English Language Arts following the state’s transition to progress-monitoring assessments.
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The newly released data reveals achievement gains across multiple subgroups, including English-language learners, African American students, Hispanic students, and economically disadvantaged families.
LAKELAND, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that a majority of Florida students are meeting or exceeding grade-level benchmarks under the state’s progress-monitoring testing framework.
Florida student test scores
What we know
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that over 60% of Florida students are performing at or above grade level in English Language Arts, math, and other core subjects.
The milestone marks the first time student proficiency has reached this level since Florida abolished the old Florida Standards Assessment exams in 2022.
Under the current system, students take progress-monitoring assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year.
Recent data shows English Language Arts proficiency climbed to 61% over the last four years, an increase from 49% when the progress-monitoring model started.
Math proficiency rose to 62%, marking a 9-percentage point improvement from the 53% proficiency rate recorded during the 2023 assessment.
Florida Department of Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas noted that the academic gains extended across all student subgroups.
For English Language Arts, proficiency rose by five percentage points among English-language learners, African American, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students, while students with disabilities saw a three-percentage point increase.
In mathematics, proficiency grew by six percentage points for English-language learners, four percentage points for Hispanic students, and three percentage points for both African American and economically disadvantaged students. Students with disabilities also improved their math scores by two percentage points.
Additional data from the latest assessments shows that 60% of fifth-grade students demonstrated proficiency in science, while 74% showed proficiency in biology. In social studies, 76% of students scored at or above grade level in civics, and 73% reached that mark in U.S. history. Florida also established a record graduation rate of 92% during the 2024-2025 school year compared to the prior school year.
State education assessment policy
What we don’t know
Officials have not yet confirmed the exact timeline or testing schedules for individual school districts for the upcoming academic year.
The state has also not released specific data detailing individual school or district-level performance grades, which depend on these final end-of-year accountability results to help determine student graduation status.
School testing accountability history
The backstory
Governor DeSantis signed legislation to eliminate the traditional end-of-year Florida Standards Assessment exams in 2022.
The previous system faced criticism because it only identified student learning gaps at the very end of the school year, preventing teachers from providing meaningful intervention while the student was still in the class.
Under the revised system, progress-monitoring tests in English Language Arts are administered to grades 3 through 10 three times a year, with math assessments following the exact same schedule for grades 3 through 8.
Florida education officials state achievements
What they’re saying
“The success is not ours,” DeSantis explained. “The success is that of the people on the ground doing this every day throughout schools in the state of Florida.”
“That’s literally hundreds of thousands of lives that are benefiting from the hard work that people are pouring into this education system, into their lives, into the hard work that’s being done on a daily basis,” Kamoutsas stated. “When you are focused on merit. When you are focused on achievement. When you set aside the individual’s background with the way they look, and you focus on how can we meet them where they are at at the beginning of the year, when we review and assess the student, where are they struggling, what are their strengths? Then you assess them again in the middle of the school year to see what is their growth. If there was not, we need to provide immediate intervention and we need to make sure that the student is learning. Then, you measure them again at the end of the year to ensure what you did in the middle of the year was actually successful.”
Student academic performance statistics
By the numbers
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92%: The record-setting state graduation rate achieved during the 2024-2025 school year.
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150,000: The approximate number of additional students now meeting or exceeding expectations in English Language Arts compared to four years ago.
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115,000: The number of additional students performing at or above grade level in mathematics relative to the 2023 metrics.
Polk County impact
Local perspective
Local school leaders in Polk County say the fourth year of this monitoring system is yielding highly encouraging outcomes for local classrooms. Graduation and proficiency numbers are actively rising as a direct result of the structural testing shift.
Polk County School District Superintendent Fred Heid explained that the data allows teachers to quickly adjust whole-group or individual supports.
“I think it gives our teachers, families, and students more appropriate and timely information.” said Heid. “It also gives our teachers the information they need to make quick changes in their classrooms and adjust their whole-group or small-group instruction, or individual supports for our students who require remediation or even enrichment.”
State Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas reported that testing scores for Hispanic students rose by four percentage points. Scores for African American students and children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds climbed by three percentage points.
“Those are remarkable numbers that show if you’re able to measure a child’s growth throughout the school year, it proves to be instrumental in their academic success,” he said.
The Source
The information in this story was gathered from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who detailed the student performance data during a press announcement on Friday, as well as Florida Department of Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas.
