The Pinellas school district should pay attention to the data presented in Sunday's Tampa Bay Times story and strive to be a top ranked district, Superintendent John Stewart said in a video message to employees this morning. A Times analysis of the 12 biggest districts found that over a decade, no big district had made less progress in reading and only one, Hillsborough, had made less progress in math.

"Don't we want to be among the very best? I certainly do. And I know you do too," Stewart says. "So let's pay attention to what is in that report, the data that is in that report. Not so much that we aren't on the top of the scale on every single one of those categories. But that we want to be at the top of the scale on every one of those reports. Because we can be. We have the talent in our teaching staff to be the very best. We have the students in the district to be the very best. What we need to do is focus on what is important in the learning process."