ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Action News Jax is getting answers from the St. Johns County School District after hearing claims from parents that all social studies and science classes in middle schools will be “advanced” this year, a move the district has not announced.
Tamara Haleem, a parent living in Nocatee, posted about it in a local Facebook group this week for parents with students in St. Johns County schools.
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Haleem tells Action News Jax she heard about it from teachers in local K-8 schools. The thought doesn’t give her any comfort.
“This would not be good for anyone,” Haleem said. “Somewhere, there needs to be a line drawn, and I think this is one of those places.”
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Action News Jax’s Finn Carlin took these claims straight to the school district. In response to our question of whether the claims were valid, the district replied:
“This practice is based on providing an advanced opportunity for all students. The claim that schools do this so that classes can be bigger is not valid. All of our schools operate within the guidelines of the state class size requirements.”
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We then asked the district if making these classes “advanced” could affect class sizes anyway, despite the intention or reasoning of doing so. This is what the district told us:
“Class size is flexible for schools that the state acknowledges as a School of Excellence. The school is still required to meet a school-wide average, but the requirement that every class meets class size is lifted. Therefore, some classes will be larger than the middle grades cap of 22 students per class, and some will be smaller. Overall, the school must still meet the school-wide average requirement. Our schools that are designated as a School of Excellence do use this flexibility granted by the state.”
Florida law, as the district mentioned, does give schools designated as a “School of Excellence” flexibility “so that the instructional personnel and administrative staff at such schools can continue to serve their communities and increase student learning to the best of their professional ability.”
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These are the current class size maximums in Florida for core classes, as laid out by the Florida Department of Education:
● 18 students in pre-K-3rd grade
● 22 students in grades 4th-8th
● 25 students in grades 9th-12th
The district made a video back in 2022 after approving larger class sizes and receiving similar concerns about the move being done to fight growth. But the district said it makes these decisions every year because of the flexibility through state law.
We also asked the district if middle schools could have up to 30 students using the “advanced” class label. This is what the district said:
“We have a few schools who are already doing this. A few more schools are exploring a shift for next year. The decision on the progression of courses at a school is always made in the best interest of the students.”
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Parents like Haleem don’t believe advanced classes should be for everyone.
“It’s not serving our learners well, it’s not serving our teachers well, and, therefore, it’s not serving our school district well,” Haleem said.
Action News Jax reached out to the district asking which schools are considering a shift to all science and social studies classes being “advanced” next year. We are still waiting for a response.
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