TALLAHASSEE -- Florida on Monday released its controversial ranking of the state’s 67 school districts, with Miami-Dade landing in a disputed 37th place and Broward 26th.

The top spot went to St. Johns County, which includes St. Augustine.

Madison County in north Florida ranked last.

The rankings, based exclusively on districts’ Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores, were the brainchild of Gov. Rick Scott, who said the effort would increase transparency and help people understand how their local district stacks up.

But the governor has taken heat from top school officials, who say FCAT scores alone overlook factors like poverty and racial diversity. Both have been shown to affect educational outcomes.

What’s more, Miami-Dade school officials disputed their ranking, saying the district should be in 30th place — not 37th place.

“We take exception to the rankings,” said Miami-Dade school district spokesman John Schuster, noting that Miami-Dade earned the 30th-highest score. (Several counties above Miami-Dade were tied.)

Scores of metrics can be used to evaluate school and school district performance. The Miami-Dade district, for example, was named one of the nation’s top urban school districts in December based on student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. And both Broward and Miami-Dade have been finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, awarded annually to the district that demonstrates the greatest performance while closing the achievement gap.

Some educators say it is difficult to devise a system that ranks districts.

“What I have advocated is to look at the quality of the experience of students have in classrooms and in schools,” said Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Scott’s rankings came under fire because they did not take into account demographic factors including the size of the school district and its economic conditions. Critics said it is unfair to compare large, diverse districts like Hillsborough and Miami-Dade to smaller school districts with a more homogeneous student population.

Before the scores were released, some education officials predicted the wealthy school districts would come out on top.

The predictions were validated: The No. 1 district, St. Johns County, serves the smallest share of poor children in the state. In district No. 67, Madison County, more than 78 percent of the students are poor.

On Monday, Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson defended the rankings. He said they merely package information that is already available to the public in a more user-friendly way. Florida school districts receive annual letter grade based on test scores.

“Part of being a good government steward is letting people know where their districts ranked,” Robinson said.

The department has plans to come out with another report that would take into account other variables, he said.. He also announced plans to rank each of the state’s schools.

“This isn’t intended to be ubiquitous,” Robinson said. “This is a starting [point].”

Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie said he understood the frustrations, but noted it’d be a challenge to satisfy all of the state’s 67 counties.

“At the end of the day I’m not trying to run the district based on rankings,” Runcie said. “They’re a marker for where things stand, but it comes down to doing what’s in the best interest of our students.”

Miami Herald staff writer Laura Figueroa contributed to this report. Kathleen McGrory can be reached at kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com. Follow her on Twitter @kmcgrory.