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Test scores

JAMES RICKARDS HIGH SCHOOL · TALLAHASSEE, FL
See how it ranks: all Florida schools by score · Leon County schools by score

FAST / B.E.S.T., SY 2024-25

All grades, all students. % at Level 3 or Above.
English Language Arts
39.6%
State avg 56.7%
District avg 55.2%
County avg 56.8%
+0.1pp since 2023-24
Mathematics
35.0%
State avg 58.9%
District avg 57.7%
County avg 59.3%
+4.0pp since 2023-24
Science
88.0%
State avg 58.7%
District avg 56.2%
County avg 58.1%
+10.0pp since 2023-24

What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 40 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level, about 35 of 100 do math at grade level, and about 88 of 100 are at grade level in science. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57, 59, and 59. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points and science scores are up about 10 points.

Rank: JAMES RICKARDS HIGH SCHOOL places #317 of 555 Florida high schools, and #6 of 7 in Leon County for state test proficiency.

BeatsExpectations

Demographically-adjusted score · methodology
Tier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
50.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
55.2%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-5.2pp
below demographic expectation

What this means: About 50% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 55% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Florida's top nor bottom 10%.

BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →

By grade, SY 2024-25

School score vs state average per tested grade.
GradeEnglish Language ArtsMathematicsScience
SchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten testedSchoolStaten tested
Grade 941.0%55.6%461N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
Grade 1038.0%57.7%408N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
High schoolN/AN/AN/A35.0%59.6%31288.0%71.5%75

2-year history

All grades, all students. JAMES RICKARDS   Florida avg

English Language Arts

53402023-2457402024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2539.6%55.2%56.8%56.7%
SY 2023-2439.5%52.3%53.8%52.9%

Mathematics

56312023-2459352024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2535.0%57.7%59.3%58.9%
SY 2023-2431.0%54.7%56.3%55.7%

Science

55782023-2459882024-25
YearSchoolDistrictCountyState
SY 2024-2588.0%56.2%58.1%58.7%
SY 2023-2478.0%51.9%53.0%55.5%

Recent discussions

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How to read these scores

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 39.6% mean for English Language Arts at JAMES RICKARDS HIGH SCHOOL?
It means about 39.6 percent of students tested at JAMES RICKARDS HIGH 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.

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