Are the school grades messed up?

Manatee school officials seem to think so.

According to this Herald-Tribune story, outgoing Manatee superintendent Roger Dearing is contending that the Florida Department of Education has deflated the recently released school grades by including the FCAT scores of new English-language learners. (The state says those results don't count until the kids have had two years of ELL course work.)

If that's true, 15 Manatee schools could see their grades rise, and the district's overall rating would rise to an A.

It also could have implications for the state's other 66 districts.

"If it happened here, I can't imagine it didn't happen in other counties," Dearing told the Herald-Tribune.

Is this another scoring snafu in the making? With millions in school recognition funds on the line, you can bet everyone is checking the data closely. Stay tuned.