School superintendents say state's grading methods 'deeply flawed'

BY ANDREA EGER and KIM ARCHER World Staff Writers
Thursday, October 04, 2012
10/04/12 at 12:14 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY - Superintendents representing 66 public school districts with an estimated 300,000 students laid out their concerns about the state’s new A-F school grading system in a Thursday morning press conference.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education is set to debut the grades for all 1,761 public schools in the state on Monday, but superintendents from across the state say the state's grading method is "deeply flawed."

"School districts are not opposed to accountability or improved communication on school performance," said Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard. "We have demonstrated accountability for student achievement for over a decade under No Child Left Behind. We were hopeful that the new A-F Grading System would be an improvement over the previous system. In its current form, however, the new system is highly discriminatory and is aimed at holding schools down. The intent is to embarrass schools, and that is unacceptable.

"By manipulating student growth data and using only the data of students showing positive growth, the State Department of Education has intentionally skewed student growth data. By excluding students who show zero or negative growth, the 'state average growth rate' is an inflated number that is not representative of all students' performance. This faulty interpretation of 'average' has resulted in lower grades for each school. This is damaging not only to students and teachers, but also to Oklahoma’s economic future and prospective growth."

Officials who spoke at the press conference at the Oklahoma State School Boards Association office also included Oklahoma City Superintendent Karl Springer, Cathy Burden from Union, Edmond's David Goin, and Joe Siano from Norman.

A commonly expressed concern for school leaders is the fact that schools will not be graded according to the same 4.0 scale that is used for grading students.

For students, 90 percent or better earns an A grade, and a 3.6 grade point average on a 4.0 scale is an A average. But under the state's new grading system, a school needs a 3.75 GPA, or 93.75, to be deemed an "A" school, officials said.

Many school officials have said publicly that they didn't seem to be getting all of the credit they thought they were due for student growth measures and that schools' grades could be unfairly skewed by a small percentage of students in that category.

Other superintendent objections to the new A-F Grading System:

The system is anything but clear, straightforward and easily communicated. It requires a 10-page technical guide and a 28-page report card guide with 48 different calculation tables to explain the complex manipulation of numbers used to arrive at the 'simple' A-F grade attributed to Oklahoma public schools.
The OSDE has publicly criticized the accuracy of the data provided by school districts. In reality, 94 percent of all weighted data used in the A-F Report Card was supplied by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. The six percent of information supplied by the school districts has minimal or no impact on a school’s letter grade.
No combination of school supplied data or bonus points can raise a school's letter grade in the area of Whole School Performance. Performance indicators such as Advanced Coursework Participation, Advanced Coursework Performance, College Entrance Exam Participation and College Entrance Exam Performance – which are strong indicators of student success – are weighted at a level that makes them irrelevant to the performance of the school.

"We are strong supporters of holding schools accountable for student instruction; however, this new system devised by the OSDE in its current configuration will get a failing grade in my community for achieving its purported goal: a higher degree of clarity for parents and the general public about local schools' performance," Siano said. "We have worked with the OSDE in good faith and with a spirit of cooperation, and we will continue to do so. Yet we also have a duty to speak out and inform parents and the public about serious flaws with these grades."

The 66 school districts represented at the press conference are as follows:

Adair Public Schools

Asher Public Schools

Barnsdall Public Schools

Bartlesville Public Schools

Bethel Public Schools

Beggs Public Schools

Bixby Public Schools

Blackwell Public Schools

Broken Arrow Public Schools

Buffalo Valley Public Schools

Cashion Public Schools

Catoosa Public Schools

Central Public Schools

Claremore Public Schools

Clayton Public Schools

Clinton Public Schools

Coalgate Public Schools

Colbert Public Schools

Coweta Public Schools

Dale Public Schools

Dover Public Schools

Durant Public Schools

Edmond Public Schools

Enid Public Schools

Fairland Public Schools

Fort Gibson Public Schools

Glenpool Public Schools

Hilldale Public Schools

Hobart Public Schools

Holdenville Public Schools

Hulbert Public Schools

Jenks Public Schools

Kremlin Public Schools

Lawton Public Schools

Liberty Public Schools

? Madill Public Schools

McLoud Public Schools

Medford Public Schools

Miami Public Schools

Midwest-Del City Public Schools

Morrison Public Schools

Muskogee Public Schools

Norman Public Schools

Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oologah-Talala Public Schools

Owasso Public Schools

Pawhuska Public Schools

Peavine Public Schools

Ponca City Public Schools

Pryor Public Schools

Putnam City Public Schools

Sallisaw Public Schools

Sand Springs Public Schools

Sapulpa Public Schools

Shidler Public Schools

Sperry Public Schools

Stillwater Public Schools

Stilwell Public Schools

Tecumseh Public Schools

Tonkawa Public Schools

Tulsa Public Schools

Union Public Schools

Waukomis Public Schools

Woodall Public Schools

Wynona Public Schools

Yukon Public Schools