PENSACOLA METRO REPORT 2014 CITIZEN-POWERED CHANGE Students take a reading class over the summer. FCAT results show that 73 percent of Santa Rosa third-graders are proficient in reading; in Escambia it’s 55 percent. We set standards for third-graders. What about us? Department of Education announces to Randy Hammer Let’s see what grade the world how well the third-graders did … is CEO and our community earns how many were “proficient” at reading, how president of the they ranked in math, and how their scores Studer Institute, and their school’s scores compared to other an organization By Randy Hammer third-graders in the district and state. committed [email protected] We don’t cut the third-graders any to improving Photo by Matthew Coughlin slack either. If their school earns an F our community’s because of their test scores, it gets printed quality of life. in the newspaper, broadcast on TV, posted e are tough on children. on Facebook and aired on the radio. Sometimes I think we’re tough- What happened to everybody gets a Wer on children than we are on trophy? ourselves. A few months ago the state released eighth-grade science scores were added in, We throw down the gauntlet before last year’s results of the Florida Compre- the state announced Santa Rosa earned an them in the third grade, making sure they hensive Assessment Test. Here’s some of know we’re going to test them and rank what we learned: A last year; Escambia a C. them to see how good they are at reading • In Santa Rosa, 73 percent of third Now here’s my question: and math. Later, we will start assessing graders were proficient in reading; What kind of year did the Pensacola their writing and science skills. We pretty 71 percent in math. City Council have? much let them know it’s going to be this • In Escambia, 55 percent were profi- What about the mayor? way until they graduate from high school. cient in reading; 49 percent in math. How about the Santa Rosa Commis- And, indeed, every spring the Florida • By the time fourth-grade writing and sion? Escambia County Commission? 2 || The Studer Institute || August 2014 Our state legislative delegation? What But there was a time in history when kind of year did we as a community have in StuderInstitute.com we didn’t make excuses. Instead, we made terms of economic development? Find video stories from the topics featured things happen. If we believe it’s important to develop in this report, plus interactive graphics and more, John Appleyard points this out in his standards to measure the performance of our at StuderInstitute.com. book “1887.” Our economy was so dominant third-graders, shouldn’t we also have a way of Follow us on social media for followups, new in the state that Florida’s first chamber of measuring the performance of our commis- information and ideas on how you can help move commerce opened its doors here on Gov- sioners and mayors, a way of telling whether our community forward: ernment and Jefferson streets. Milton and we as a community are moving forward or Bagdad were the timber capitals of the world. backward, just as we do with public schools? Facebook.com/StuderInstitute Pensacola was the red snapper capital of the What do I mean by forward or back- Twitter.com/StuderInstitute world. A decade later, the tallest building in ward? When I moved to Pensacola in the the state would be built on Palafox Street, which today is called Seville Tower. early 1970s to attend the University of West we’re doing as a community. Florida, the average worker in the Pensacola The Pensacola Metro was not only the For example, if Escambia County is tru- metro made 50 cents more an hour than the economic center of the Panhandle in 1887, but ly serious about improving our wages and average state worker. In 1970, we not only also the economic center of Florida. We had an our economy, then as a community we need had one of the best economies in the state, economy and community everybody else want- to work together to improve the high school but one of the best in the Southeast. ed, but slowly over the decades beginning in graduation rate. Jim Clifton, the chairman But 30 years later, in 2001, we made $1 1970, we lost our momentum and our standing. of Gallup, has spent years developing ways less an hour than the average Florida worker. Appleyard, who founded the Appleyard to benchmark the socioeconomic perfor- Today? Agency in 1959, has written dozens of books mance of cities. The high-school graduation We make $8,000 less than the average and pamphlets about Pensacola and West rate is one of the best indicators of a com- American worker, which hurts because back in Florida’s history over the years. He has a line munity’s economic prospects, he says. 1970 we made about the same as the average in “1887” that I think is relevant for us today: When companies explore moving to a American. That’s what I mean by backward. “In the life of every community, there In 2001, the Pensacola News Journal community, one of the first things they look are certain periods during which fate, major teamed with the University of West Florida up is the graduation rate. In Escambia, just decisions and unusual people generate to study what had happened to our wages 64 percent of our high-schoolers graduate. great change.” and living standards since the ’70s. The two For black students, it’s 51 percent. Look around our community. Look staffs gathered and analyzed key economic As Shannon Nickinson pointed out in an at how much we have changed since the and social indicators for Escambia and Santa episode of “Progress + Promise” earlier this devastation of Hurricane Ivan 10 years ago. Rosa counties to produce a 60-page report. year, these figures are morally reprehensible Look at what has risen on our waterfront. The Studer Institute has now partnered and economic suicide. “Not only for these Look at Palafox, named one of the top with Rick Harper and his Office of Econom- students, but the rest of us, too,” she said. downtown streets in America. And look at ic Development and Engagement staff at Clifton writes about graduation rates in AppRiver in Gulf Breeze, which started with UWF to refresh that 2001 report. Accord- his book “The Coming Jobs War.” He says two employees in 2002 and now has 208. ing to the numbers, we’re seeing signs of a kids drop out of school when they lose hope In the stories and pages that follow, rebound. It’s definitely not as much as we they will graduate. And they lose hope when you will read a lot about that progress. But would like, but it is a move forward. they aren’t excited about what comes next you also will read about the challenges. And So why is the Institute doing this? in their lives. there are many. First, we want to help people understand It’s upsetting to think we have so many You will see in this report that a lot of our community. The goal is to provide fact- children who feel this way in our community. good people are making a difference today, based, thoughtful analysis of issues we need to And this is a problem teachers and principals pushing us to have better schools, better address to move our community forward. We can’t fix alone. We as a community have to health, better jobs, a better community, and, plan to do this by establishing key benchmarks make this a priority for all of us. And one of yes, a better graduation rate. And it is this and indicators that we believe the community the best ways to do that is to have a goal — a army of people who have pointed us toward needs to follow to see if we’re making progress. benchmark — that lets us know every year the metrics and indicators that we are put- We all seem to understand the impor- whether or not more than 64 percent of our stu- ting together so that all of us can under- tance of annually keeping an eye on the dents are graduating, or less than 64 percent. stand year-in and year-out if we’re moving reading and math scores of our third-grad- Are we moving forward or backward? forward or backward as a community. ers. The Institute believes it is also import- We all have heard the excuses about Yes, we have problems. But I sense we’re ant to have a way to measure the perfor- why we can’t fix the graduation rate — moving in the right direction. And my hope mance of our community and its leaders. poverty, single-parent homes, drugs, poor is that John Appleyard is right, and today And just as we do with FCAT scores, we parenting, lousy schools, video games. You could be another one of those periods of great need to regularly provide a summary of how name it, we’ve blamed it. change in the life of our community. August 2014 || The Studer Institute || 3 People gather for dinner at Al Fresco on Palafox Street in Pensacola on a recent Saturday. Al Fresco is among the many charms luring visitors to Pensacola’s vibrant downtown. atrick Elebash saw something down- ing downtown to town last Christmas that he had never knock out multiple First, the Pseen before.