Florida is worthy model for Oklahoma education efforts

As it turns out, Florida has done well — at least according to the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which compares the fourth-grade reading skills of students in 53 education systems around the world. For the latest report, Florida officials asked to be treated as a separate country to see how its students measured up with their global counterparts.

The PIRLS found Florida kids were outperformed only by Hong Kong students. U.S. students as a whole trailed Hong Kong, the Russian Federation, Finland and Singapore, and were roughly tied with kids in seven other nations. Florida students outperformed U.S. students, even though only public school students were included in the Florida sample and the U.S. sample included private school students. Also, 56 percent of Florida students are low-income and 57 percent are minority, higher than national averages.