The release of the 2024–2025 Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) results has provided a vital snapshot of academic performance at Norland Middle School in Miami-Dade. These results highlight both strengths and areas requiring significant attention across grades and subjects. By analyzing the data closely, stakeholders—teachers, administrators, parents, and students—can better understand where the school excels and where targeted strategies could yield meaningful improvement.
A total of 1,154 students at Norland Middle participated in the FAST assessments:
ELA: 653 students tested, with 318 (49%) performing at or above grade level.
Math: 501 students tested, with 220 (44%) meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations.
While these figures indicate that nearly half of the student body demonstrates proficiency, they also reveal that a substantial portion—over half in some categories—requires additional academic support.
ELA: 50% of students met the standard.
Math: 51% of students achieved proficiency.
Grade 6 emerged as one of the stronger cohorts, particularly in Math, where students performed slightly above the school average. Both subjects show balanced outcomes, suggesting that early intervention at the middle school entry point is effective.
ELA: 51% of students met grade-level expectations.
Math: 47% achieved proficiency.
Grade 7 ELA stood out as the best-performing subject across all grades. Out of 196 seventh-grade ELA students, 100 students (51%) were proficient or above. Math performance, however, trailed slightly below the 50% mark, indicating room for targeted support.
ELA: Only 46% of students met the standard.
Math: Just 34% demonstrated proficiency—the lowest across all subjects and grades.
Eighth graders faced the steepest academic challenges. Their scores suggest significant gaps in foundational knowledge and readiness for high school. Particularly in Math, nearly two-thirds of the students fell short of grade-level expectations, underscoring the urgency for intervention.
Across all grades and subjects, the distribution of performance levels was strikingly consistent:
Level 5 (highest): 6%
Level 4: 17%
Level 3 (on track): 24%
Level 2: 28%
Level 1 (lowest): 25%
This breakdown reveals a concentration of students in the lower tiers, with 53% of the school population (Levels 1 and 2) requiring substantial academic support.
Strongest Cohort:
Weakest Cohort:
Overall Trends: ELA outperformed Math in both Grade 7 and Grade 8, while Math slightly outperformed ELA in Grade 6.
47% of Norland Middle School students overall met standards.
28% are at Level 2—just below grade-level proficiency—suggesting they could benefit from targeted, short-term interventions.
25% are at Level 1, indicating significant academic gaps that will likely require long-term support.
This means that more than half of the student body is entering their next academic level at risk, particularly in mathematics and eighth-grade literacy.
If Norland Middle implements recommended programs such as Lumos Learning’s structured test-prep strategies and professional development for teachers, projections suggest:
Such gains would significantly alter the academic trajectory of students, particularly those currently performing at Level 1 and Level 2.
The FAST 2024–2025 results at Norland Middle School paint a mixed picture. On one hand, sixth graders have demonstrated encouraging outcomes, with half of them proficient in both ELA and Math. Seventh graders particularly excelled in ELA, establishing a model of strength. On the other hand, eighth-grade results—especially in Math—signal a pressing need for intervention.