Walton County School District Earns Another “A”

DeFuniak Springs is once again home to one of the best school districts in the state. For the ninth year in a row, Walton County School District recently received an “A” grade from the Florida Department of Education. The district tied for the #2 ranking among Florida's 67 districts, and was in the top five in a number of subjects, including English Language Arts (ELA).

For the past five years, WCSD has focused intensely on teaching basic reading skills, especially in pre-K through 2nd-grade classrooms. Those efforts are paying off. According to students’ scores on the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST), the district was third in the state in 4th-grade ELA, and fourth in 8th- as well as 10th-grade ELA.

Carla Sconiers, the Instructional Support Coordinator in charge of K-12 literacy instruction at WCSD, said that the district’s success is based on a commitment to teaching using a set of principles called the Science of Reading, while at the same time taking into account that “not all students in a classroom are going to be on the same reading level.”

To give each individual student the practice they need, one of the programs WCSD uses is called Reading Eggs, which offers a mix of on-screen and written materials. For a district that is mindful of student screentime, that combination is essential.

Sconiers said that using both printed and on-screen materials gives teachers a choice in the classrooms. They might assign students independent reading on their devices, but hand out worksheets to help students learn skills like hand-writing.

Having a program that’s used by every school allows Sconiers’ team to track performance in the district as a whole and on each campus. When she meets with principals, Sconiers always highlights other schools that are making the most progress, creating a sense of friendly competition.

This coordinated, districtwide literacy initiative has led to consistent improvement in assessment scores, which has played a large part in the district’s high grades from the state. As Superintendent A. Russell Hughes said, "This achievement is the result of thousands of people choosing excellence every single day. Our teachers inspire, our students rise to the challenge, our School Board and families support learning, and our staff works tirelessly behind the scenes to make success possible.”