Emily Lampa, Your Kids

You can't dispute good grades, and the numbers show Florida's students continue to improve at a staggering rate.

In the national Quality Counts report, Florida's public education system went from the bottom 20 to top 15 in just one year.

News 13's Emily Lampa found a school in Eatonville that mirrored that vast improvement to find out what the kids are doing right.

A "C" average might be considered satisfactory, but for Hungerford Elementary School in Orlando, a school grade of a "C" is way above average.

"Considering that we were the only F school last year, we were definitely pushing for performance, achievement, academic achievement, and I think the kids produced really well," said Dr. Jenell Bovis, the principal of Hungerford Elementary School.

How did Hungerford manage to pull up their grades?

Bovis attributes the improvement to increased structure in the classroom, and giving the students more work.
 
Surprisingly, the children didn't mind.

"When it's hard, they show us easy ways to figure it out," said Duvaughn, a 5th grader.

This year, Hungerford is shooting for a B, and they believe it's possible through motivational programs such as accelerated reading. In this program, each student has a weekly reading goal, and when tested on the reading, they need to score 85 percent or better to qualify for a reward.

According to the children, it is easy to achieve because they get to choose what they want to read.

"We read, like, a chapter every day," said Desiree, a 5th grader. "I can read up to 5 or 6 books in a week."

So far, about 85 percent of the students have been meeting their accelerated reading goals.

"Reading is definitely not the only focus at Hungerford Elementary School. They have also shown a vast improvement in math and the sciences.

"I like science because they teach me about astronomy and science, and when I grow up I want to be an astronomer and learn about planets because I'm really into that now," said Malik, a 5th grader.

"They have become more self-motivated. They want to achieve. They don't want to be the one that's left behind, and so I think we're going to see good results this year," Bovis said.

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