FAST / B.E.S.T., SY 2024-25
All grades, all students. % at Level 3 or Above.English Language Arts
28.4%
State avg 56.7%
District avg 55.6%
County avg 55.6%
-2.0pp since 2023-24
Mathematics
24.6%
State avg 58.9%
District avg 55.3%
County avg 55.3%
-8.5pp since 2023-24
Science
21.0%
State avg 58.7%
District avg 55.5%
County avg 55.5%
-5.0pp since 2023-24
What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 28 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level, about 25 of 100 do math at grade level, and about 21 of 100 are at grade level in science. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57, 59, and 59. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 8 points and science scores are down about 5 points.
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of FL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
27.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
50.9%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-22.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 28% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 51% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual.
How this is calculated →What is FAST / B.E.S.T.?
Florida public-school students take the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) three times a year in ELA and Math (grades 3-10), plus a B.E.S.T. Science test at grades 5 and 8. High school students take B.E.S.T. End-of-Course (EOC) exams in Algebra I and Biology. The Spring (PM3) administration is the summative measure used here.
What does "% at Level 3 or Above" mean?
It is the percentage of students at the school who scored at Level 3, 4, or 5 on Florida's 5-level B.E.S.T. performance scale. Level 3 is "On Grade Level"; Levels 4 and 5 are "Above Grade Level" and "Mastery". The cumulative top-three rate is the headline measure FLDOE reports for school grades. A higher number is better.
What does 28.4% mean for English Language Arts at CHESTER W. TAYLOR JR. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
It means about 28.4 percent of students tested at CHESTER W. TAYLOR JR. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL performed at grade level or above on the FAST / B.E.S.T. English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Florida that year was 56.7%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Florida, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Florida Department of Education, Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) and B.E.S.T. End-of-Course exams (Algebra I, Biology). School-level results from the FLDOE Spring PM3 administration. Headline metric is the cumulative "Level 3 or Above" rate on Florida's 5-level B.E.S.T. performance scale.
How often is it updated?
FAST / B.E.S.T. is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.
