While talking with a group of high school physics teachers in Central Florida a few years ago, I mentioned that at Leon County’s Godby High School, which has a free and reduced-price eligibility rate of about 90%, about 40% of the students take a physics course during their time at the school. With one voice, the dozen teachers in the room insisted that I must be mistaken, and that no school that demographically challenged could possibly host a physics program that successful. My co-conspirator Adam LaMee, who is the Physics Teacher-in-Residence at UCF but prior to that taught physics at Leon County’s Lincoln and Rickards High Schools, assured the group of teachers that I was correct and that Godby is indeed that successful in attracting students into physics classes in large numbers despite the challenges.
Godby, where former school Teacher of the Year Zondra Clayton teaches physics, is still attracting students into the subject in large numbers. In fact, the school’s chemistry program is equally successful. Among the 37 public high schools with 100 or more 12th graders in Northwest Florida – a region bounded on the east by Leon County and on the west by Escambia County – Godby has the fifth highest enrollment rate in physics and the fourth highest rate in chemistry. For the STEM Career Prep Index, calculated as the sum of enrollment rates in chemistry, physics, precalculus and calculus, Godby ranks fifth – a remarkable achievement given the challenges faced by the school’s students, teachers and administrators.
In fact, among the eight schools ranked highest in the Northwest Florida STEM Career Prep Index for Fall 2019, which is calculated using course enrollment and school membership data posted by the Florida Department of Education, five are in Leon County. Chiles High School is first, Lincoln High School second, Godby fifth, Rickards High School seventh, and Leon High School eighth.
The other schools in the top eight are Escambia County’s Pensacola High School (second), the Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College in Okaloosa County (fourth), and Okaloosa County’s Niceville High School (sixth).
The enrollment rates for the individual subjects are calculated by summing the numbers of students enrolled in the subjects in all grades and then dividing that total by the number of 12th graders. The result gives an estimate of the course-taking rate, which itself can only be determined by examining individual transcripts.
The course enrollment numbers include dual enrollments. The FLDOE started including dual enrollments in their course enrollment spreadsheets for Spring 2019, so they are included here.
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