More than half of survey respondents believe growth, proficiency should carry equal weight on A-F school grading system

Fifty-five percent of the more than 26,000 survey participants responding to questions about North Carolina’s controversial A-F school performance grading system believe a student’s academic growth and performance on standardized tests should carry equal weight when assigning school grades.

Currently, academic growth from one year to the next accounts for 20% of a school’s grade. Performance on state tests (proficiency) accounts for 80%.

The online survey was conducted over the last two weeks by EdNC, an education-focused news website. (See the survey results here.)

Ninety percent of respondents favored a grading approach that includes measures beyond growth and proficiency and 87% believe elementary, middle and high schools should have different measures of school success.

Most survey responses came from people identifying themselves as K-12 teachers (42%) and parents, guardians or grandparents (33%), with principals accounting for 8% of the responses and students, 6%. Sixty one of the 115 local superintendents responded to the survey.

The survey comes as momentum builds throughout North Carolina and along the state’s political spectrum to redesign the school grading system to more closely reflect the teaching and learning that occurs in classrooms. Parents often use the school grades to decide which schools to enroll their children.

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, is leading the most recent charge to change the grading system. In past years, the push came mostly from Democrats who made the argument that growth is a more accurate reflection of student achievement.

Truitt said the survey results are a call to action.

“There is widespread agreement that school performance grades should be more encompassing than just test scores and instead include indicators that more accurately reflect school quality,” Truitt said in a news release.

An advisory group was convened to redesign the school grading model for consideration by lawmakers next year. The group will meet next month to recommend changes to the current model.

Nearly 75% of respondents agreed that some standardized testing is needed to understand how students are performing in school, but slightly fewer than that want the keep the current system in place.

North Carolina modeled its A-F school grade system largely after the one used in Florida. That state started assigning school letter grades in 1999 based on state test scores.

Florida revamped its letter grading system for the 2014-15 school year and grades are now based on achievement (proficiency), learning gains (growth), graduation rates, and college and career acceleration, which includes student success on AP or International Baccalaureate exams.

Here are some alternative measurements for school performance grades that EdNC survey respondents agreed are worth exploring:

• Courses offered outside of core academics (i.e., arts, world languages, career, and technical education).
• Durable skills (i.e., communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, persistence)?.
• High school graduation rate?.
• School climate (overall social and learning climate).
• School safety (i.e., incidents of school crime, violence, school resource officer).
• Advanced or honors courses.
• Closing gaps between different student groups?.
• Earning college credit in high school (i.e., Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Career and College Promise, Community College).
• Innovative teaching and learning practices (i.e., Project-Based Learning, Competency-Based Education, Digital Learning, Virtual or Blended Courses).
• School environment/cleanliness.
• Teacher attendance/absenteeism?.
• Work-based learning experiences (i.e., internships, apprenticeships).
• Workforce credentials or industry-based certifications.