Making the grades

Two letter grades would be better

Once upon a time, this state’s education establishment seemed more focused on talking in confusing Educanto and changing the standardized test every few years, the better to make the results of their efforts as opaque as possible. Why be transparent and accountable when all those pesky parents can get angry so easily? What’s a few generations of failing schools? It’s hard work to make sure no child is left behind.

Several years back, however, that began to change. The test stopped changing year to year, so the rest of us could compare scores each spring. And letter grades were introduced for schools and districts, so that the public could better understand which schools were succeeding in their efforts and, maybe more importantly, which were not.

There was some backlash against the letter grades (don’t label schools!) but folks gradually agreed that if letter grades were good enough for students to give to their parents, they should be good enough for schools and districts to give to the public.

When this change was first debated in Arkansas, we remember some interested types in Florida explaining their system to us: They said their one regret with letter grades was that they didn’t give two grades to each school.

One for achievement.

And one for improvement. Because a school receiving a middlin’ grade could be doing a great job. That is, if the students were making a ton of progress, but happened to start off at challenging beginning points. (Which is why longitudinal grading of test scores can identify the best public school teachers. But that’s a whole ‘nuther editorial.)

We were reminded about that this last week after reading the Wednesday paper. On the front page there was but one story that wasn’t election-oriented. And the story deserved the frontpage play. Because a third of the public schools in Arkansas got Ds or Fs for the 2021-22 school year.

It was awful news. According to Cynthia Howell’s story, 32% of the state’s schools received Ds or Fs. Compare that to 19% that “achieved” those scores in 2019.

On the other end of matters, only 8% got As this past school year, as compared to 16% in 2019.

The grades are based on the ACT Aspire test, and also on things such as graduation rates, student attendance, AP courses given, and the like.

The Office for Education Policy at UA-Fayetteville keeps up with these numbers. It even provides spreadsheets to focus on what’s happening. Sarah McKenzie, the executive director of the office, said the pandemic had something to do with the grades. And there’s little doubt about that.

Then this, buried a bit in the copy: Sarah McKenzie said she’s a proponent of the A to F letter grades for schools because they are easy to understand. But she suggests changes:

According to the story: “She suggested that schools be given two grades — one based on achievement and the other based on improvement, or growth, in achievement . . . .

The state distributes bonuses to schools based on two grades, one for achievement and one for improvement, and — just in time for this conversation! — those bonuses came out last week. The state said that 178 of Arkansas’ schools will get a total of $6,877,600 in bonuses for either high achievement and/or substantial improvement by students. As measured by standardized test scores.

The state provides awards of $100 per student to the top 5% of the highest achieving schools and the top 5% of schools that post the best gains over the previous year.

This ought to continue. Because outstanding schools from outstanding neighborhoods with outstanding tax bases should be recognized for keeping students engaged and ready for university. And outstanding schools from challenging ZIP codes ought to be recognized for improving the prospects of their students, too.

So why can’t we hand out two grades as well? And let parents know that, even if their school is challenged academically or financially or in any other way, it is still making headway in this never-ending battle to educate our kids.

We can do this. We have done this. If two heads are better than one, so are two grades.