Dear Parents and Community,

I am happy to announce that Roberts Elementary has once again been named an
A+ school by the State of Florida!  Congratulations to our students,
teachers, and parents for all their hard work!

Our Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act is
listed as “provisional”.  We met criteria for AYP in all subgroups for
reading and math, but our scores dropped in writing, resulting in
the "provisional" status.  This year there is concern across the state over
the narrative writing prompt that was given to 4th graders.  It is felt by
many educators that the prompt was not appropriate for fourth graders and
therefore was the cause of the dramatic drops in writing scores.  At
Roberts, our students who received the expository prompt did extremely well
with 88% scoring a 3.5 or better; in comparison, our students who received
the narrative prompt did not do nearly as well, with only 68% scoring a 3.5
or better.  Our school district is analyzing the effect this has had on
schools in our district and throughout the state and will be communicating
with state officials about our concerns.

With that aside, we can be very proud of the progress our students have
made and of being named an A+ school once again by the State of Florida.

Thank you for your hard work!  I hope you are having a wonderful summer
vacation and I am looking forward to seeing the children back at school in
August!