Winter Park and Edgewater both rank in above average

Report cards are in for Florida high schools, and both local schools serving Winter Park and Maitland scored above average with B grades. That’s a letter grade slip for Winter Park High, while Edgewater stayed constant from the year before.

The grades bring Winter Park’s streak of three years of straight-A grades to a halt. But for Edgewater, B grades have been the constant since 2012.

A release by Orange County Public Schools said the district’s overall dropping grades are likely to blame on an increased standard enforced by the state when it comes to grading schools. Under the 2013 criteria, the release said, Edgewater along with four other Orange County high schools would have scored a letter grade higher than they did in 2014. Instead, only two schools earned higher grades in 2014 than in 2013, while seven dropped a letter grade.

There’s better news on the graduation-rate front. The statistics released Dec. 18 show that graduation rates are up 1.3 percentage points in Orange County. Winter Park is above average in that aspect, with a 90.9 percent graduation rate. Edgewater falls behind the county average of 88.1 percent, with 85.6 percent of its seniors graduating in 2014.