Florida’s Schools Got As. Harvard Put Its Reading Scores Dead Last.
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Your child’s school has an A. The state says so, right there on the official report card — and this year three-quarters of Florida schools earned one. If your child still struggles to read, you might wonder what you’re missing.
You’re not missing anything. You’re standing in the gap between two reports that came out within six weeks of each other, and they say completely different things about the same schools. Florida released its 2025-26 school grades: 76% of elementary and high schools earned an A or B, and no district in the state received a D or F. Harvard and Stanford researchers released their annual Education Scorecard in May: Florida ranked last — 35th out of 35 states — in reading growth between 2022 and 2025, with the steepest decline of any state in the study.
Both of those things are true at the same time. What they tell a parent who’s been told not to worry because the school is one of the good ones is the subject of this piece.
TL;DR
Florida released 2025-26 school accountability grades: 34 of 67 districts earned A, 23 earned B; 76% of elementary and high schools earned A or B.
Harvard and Stanford's 2026 Education Scorecard ranked Florida last (35th of 35 states) in reading growth from 2022 to 2025, with the steepest decline of any state in the study.
The average Florida student now reads more than half a grade level below where the average Florida student read in 2022.
Florida's NAEP 8th grade reading ranking fell from 25th (2017) to 43rd (2024) — bottom 10 states nationally.
All states that improved in reading implemented comprehensive science-of-reading practices; Florida reported doing so but saw the largest reading decline among all states studied.
Florida school grades and a Harvard-Stanford reading report tell two different stories about the same schools. Here is what the gap means for parents whose children struggle to read.
Common questions
What do Florida school letter grades actually measure?
Florida awards points for learning gains and scores on state tests in English, math, science, and social studies; graduation rates; and participation in accelerated courses. A school earns an A by scoring 65% or more of available points. The system does not directly measure how the school lowest readers perform against national benchmarks or how reading growth compares to independent standards.
My child attends an A-rated Florida school but still struggles to read. Is something being missed?
The grade alone does not answer that question. The Harvard-Stanford Education Scorecard found that even as Florida accountability grades rose, reading growth fell the furthest among all 35 states studied. Ask the school: what structured literacy practices does it use, how is your child reading growth measured beyond state tests, and what support exists for students reading below grade level. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, a professional evaluation is the right route to those supports.
What is the science of reading and why does it matter here?
Science of reading refers to the body of research on how children learn to decode and understand text — the core finding being that systematic phonics instruction is necessary for most readers. The Harvard-Stanford report found that every state that improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 implemented comprehensive science-of-reading practices. Florida reported implementing those same reforms but still fell furthest in reading growth. Researchers noted implementation quality and whether instruction addresses the full range of skills reading requires are the key open questions.
My child reading does not improve with phonics practice. What else should I look for?
Phonics instruction is necessary and for children who struggle most it is rarely sufficient on its own. Reading draws on multiple processing systems at once: phonological awareness, auditory processing, visual processing, working memory, and processing speed. When phonics-based instruction alone is not moving the needle, it is worth understanding which other systems need support. A multi-system assessment identifies where the bottleneck is. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis; for formal accommodations or clinical concerns, a professional evaluation is the appropriate next step.
Florida Schools Earned As. The Scorecards Don’t Agree on What That Means.
Florida’s Department of Education released its 2025-26 school accountability grades on July 1. Thirty-four of the state’s 67 districts received an A; 23 received a B; 10 received a C. No district earned a D or F for the second consecutive year. At the individual school level, 76% of elementary and high schools and 79% of middle schools earned an A or B rating.
The metrics Florida uses to award those grades include learning gains and scores on state tests in English, math, science, and social studies; graduation rates; and participation in accelerated coursework like Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, and industry certifications. An A requires earning 65% or more of available points. A B requires 60-64%. Florida lawmakers have themselves noted that a student who scored 60% on an exam would be failing. Schools scoring 60% get a B.
The results triggered a state law: when 75% or more of schools earn an A, the threshold must be raised the following year. “Florida continues to prove that high expectations, expanded school choice and strong accountability produce real results for students,” outgoing Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said in the release.
Six weeks earlier, Harvard and Stanford researchers released a different kind of report card. The Education Scorecard — produced annually since 2022 by Tom Kane of Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research and Sean Reardon of Stanford University — draws on test scores for approximately 35 million students in grades 3-8 across 35 states. The report placed Florida dead last in reading growth over the three years from 2022 to 2025. The average Florida student now reads more than half a grade level below where the average student read in 2022. “Achievement fell during the pandemic, and in all but eight states, it continued falling between 22 and 25 in reading. That should be alarming all of us,” said Kane.
Author Quote"
“Achievement fell during the pandemic, and in all but eight states, it continued falling between ’22 and ’25 in reading. That should be alarming all of us.” — Tom Kane, faculty director, Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University
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What the coverage gets wrong
Most reporting on Florida's school grades treated the A/B results as an education success story without placing them alongside the Harvard-Stanford Education Scorecard released six weeks earlier, which put Florida last in reading growth among 35 states. When Florida officials called that independent report the work of a "failing woke institution," most coverage did not note that Stanford's Sean Reardon directly addressed the dismissal: "Generally NAEP and state test trends are highly correlated," and Florida's reading declines were "larger than average." A grading system that uses its own metrics and dismisses external validation when that data disagrees is not an accountability system — it is a self-assessment. Parents reading only the grade-release coverage get one half of the picture.
When the Grades Go Up and the Reading Goes Down, Something Is Being Measured Wrong
A grading system that measures whether schools clear state-defined checkpoints is not the same as a system that measures whether children read. Florida’s grades reward the system for doing what the system was designed to do. The Education Scorecard measures whether students are learning to read against a national benchmark. Right now, those two measurements are moving in opposite directions.
Florida’s official response to the Education Scorecard was to call the Harvard-Stanford researchers a “failing woke institution.” The state also questioned the validity of NAEP, which placed Florida’s 8th grade reading at 43rd in the nation in 2024, down from 25th in 2017. Sean Reardon answered the dismissal directly: “Generally NAEP and state test trends are highly correlated,” and Florida’s reading declines were “larger than average.” Pasco County school board member Jessica Jecusco-Wright described the dismissal as a mistake. “I think that when the state dismisses these sorts of statistics and data… I think it’s a mistake,” she said.
The Education Scorecard identified every state that improved in reading between 2022 and 2025. All of them were implementing comprehensive science-of-reading practices including systematic phonics instruction. Florida reported implementing those same reforms. Its reading growth still fell the furthest. The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition explicitly recognizes that reading difficulty involves multiple systems working together. Phonics is necessary. For children who struggle most, it was never going to be sufficient on its own. The science is not the problem. The system that is supposed to deliver it is.
Key Takeaways:
1
A-Grades vs. Reading Growth: Florida gave 76% of schools A or B ratings while Harvard and Stanford researchers ranked Florida dead last in reading growth among 35 states studied between 2022 and 2025.
2
The Decline Is Real: The average Florida student now reads more than half a grade level below where the average student read in 2022 — the steepest decline of any state in the Harvard-Stanford Education Scorecard.
3
What the Science Shows: Every state that improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 implemented comprehensive science-of-reading practices. Florida reported doing the same and still fell furthest, pointing to a gap between policy adoption and classroom execution.
What an A Grade Tells You and What It Doesn’t
If your child attends an A-rated Florida school and reads below grade level, you are not imagining a contradiction. You are living one. The grade tells you the school cleared its state accountability benchmarks. The Education Scorecard tells you that Florida students, on average, read more than half a grade level below where they did three years ago. Both facts are verifiable.
Understand what the A is measuring and what it is not. The grade reflects learning gains on state tests and participation in advanced coursework. It does not tell you whether your child’s specific reading challenges are being addressed with instruction that matches how their brain processes language. Ask the specific questions the A does not answer: What structured literacy practices does the school use? Is your child’s reading progress tracked on a curriculum-based measure so you see month-by-month whether growth is happening?
Some children need more than what any phonics-based curriculum alone provides. Reading draws on multiple processing systems simultaneously: phonological awareness, auditory processing, visual processing, working memory, and processing speed. When a child’s reading does not respond to instruction the way the teacher expects, the question worth asking is not whether the child is trying hard enough. The question is which part of the processing stack is the bottleneck. Every state that improved reading between 2022 and 2025 implemented science-of-reading practices. That is the right direction. But implementing a curriculum and reaching each child who struggles are two different things. The A on the school’s report card is a starting point for conversation, not a reason to stop asking questions.
Author Quote"
“I think that when the state dismisses these sorts of statistics and data, I mean, obviously, I cannot speak for them, but I think it’s a mistake.” — Jessica Jecusco-Wright, school board member, Pasco County, Florida
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Parents deserve accurate information about whether their child’s school is building the skills that matter most. A grading system that rewards compliance with its own benchmarks while external researchers place the state last in reading growth is not accountability — it is a mirror pointed at itself. The children who fall through that gap are the ones who need the clearest picture. If your child’s reading challenges are not responding to what the school is doing, the question worth asking is whether the whole processing stack has been evaluated — because reading draws on more than phonics, and the right support addresses what is actually in the way. Start with a free Learning Difficulties Analysis to see which systems need attention.
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