Florida's school system was ranked No. 36 in the nation in the American Legislative Exchange Council's 15th annual Report Card on American Education, released Tuesday.
The rank is a step up from last year's No. 37 ranking and is the state's highest position since 1998, but still places Florida behind about 70 percent of the country.
The council issued its rankings based on three underlying performance factors: ACT, SAT and National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, all of which Florida ranked below average.
Although Florida fourth-graders received higher NAEP mathematics and reading scores than the national average, eighth-graders in the same areas scored below the average.
Florida's scores were worse than the nation's average ACT scores by about two points out of 30, and worse than national averages in SAT scores by 24 points. State averages were lower than national averages for educator salaries, per-student expenditures and teacher-student ratios.
Only 59.4 percent of students graduated in Florida compared to the national average of 70.2.
Graduation is a serious concern across the state, according to Alachua County School District spokeswoman Jackie Johnson, who blames the problem on budget slashing, which resulted in cutting the high school day from seven periods to six and slashing funds for summer school.
Without funding for seven-period days and summer school, Johnson said, it is difficult for students to graduate with 24 credits.
"It gives the kids no wiggle room," she said. "If a kid fails one class, it means he's not going to graduate on time."
According to the report's author, Andrew T. LeFevre, there is no correlation between education funding and student achievement. However, Florida education expenditures are notoriously low, Johnson said.
"There are a number of state and national reports that make it clear that Florida does a terrible, terrible job of funding public education," Johnson said. "Florida has essentially done this to itself."
Alachua County, which has seen increases in graduation and African American graduation in particular, is a bright spot in Florida's graduation record, Johnson said.
Alachua County has an average SAT score of 1090, beating Florida at 993 and the national average of 1017.
Florida's per-student expenditures totaled $7,652, which is below the national average and between about $1,500 and $5,500 below the top three ranking states, Minnesota, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Lawson Brown, assistant principal of Abraham Lincoln Middle School, said that while throwing money at the school system would not immediately improve test scores and graduation rates, additional funding would give schools more flexibility to address student achievement.
"The reality is that there are some dollar issues that limit what we can do in school," he said.
The ALEC is a nonpartisan group for lawmakers who believe in limited government, according to its Web site.
