Contrary to assertions made in newspaper reports this morning, Department of Education officials say there is NOT a problem with school grades in Manatee County or anywhere else in the state.

"Absolutely, definitively not," DOE spokesman Tom Butler told The Gradebook.

According to the Bradenton Herald and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, officials with the Manatee County school district said the state may have mistakenly counted the test scores of students whose first language is not English. District officials also said the problem may extend beyond Manatee.

"If it happened here, I can't imagine it didn't happen in other
counties," Manatee Superintendent Roger Dearing said, according to the
Herald-Tribune. "I don't think we are the only school district that
this happened to," Judy Laurent, associate director of Title I schools,
told the Herald. Both papers reported that 15 or so Manatee schools
could be affected, and that their school grades could be revised.

DOE officials said the students in question did not take the FCAT,
which school grades are based on. Instead, the students took an
alternate test that does not count towards school grades, but does
count towards a federal rating mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

DOE officials said it's unclear if anything went wrong with the
reporting of those scores. They said they have yet to receive a formal
appeal from Manatee officials, and they need that to "determine if
there is an issue or not," Butler said.

The appeals deadline is Aug. 8.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter