Despite Opposition, Virginia's A-F School Grading System Progresses with New Criteria

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Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced that the Virginia Board of Education just approved criteria for an A-F grading system Thursday that will assign letter grades to schools based on the percentages of students demonstrating proficiency, academic growth and college and career readiness, but state education groups, including the Virginia Education Association (VEA), opposes the initiative.

McDonnell proposed an A-F school grading system as part of his ALL STUDENTS 2013 education agenda. The 2013 General Assembly subsequently approved House Bill 1999 and Senate Bill 1207 sponsored by Del. Thomas A. Greason, R-Loudoun County, and Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County respectively, directing the state Board of Education to create an A-F scale based on performance, state and federal accountability standards and student growth indicators.

McDonnell calls the initiative, a thoughtful approach,” to provide “parents with a better understanding of school performance.” He also commended the General Assembly “for supporting this commonsense reform to bring accountability and transparency to Virginia public schools.”

However, President of the VEA Meg Gruber said that the initiative passed through the General Assembly along party lines, with Republicans generally voting for it and Democrats generally voting against it, even though educators and parents generally disapproved of the legislation.

“We definitely, along with other partners, are opposing the school grading. Hopefully,we can work with the General Assembly to appeal it, or to at least put in a general delay,” Gruber said.

Gruber said that along with the VEA, almost all Virginia education groups opposed to the legislation, including the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals, the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principal and the Virginia Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Gruber said these groups dislike the A-F grading system because it gives a flat letter score that does not tell a more nuisance story of a school. She said students receive a full report card with grades in various subjects; however, Virginia schools will only receive one grade that will not accurately describe the strengths and weaknesses of those schools.

“By averaging all that (information) together and coming up with a letter, that does not give you a picture of the complex process,” Gruber said.

She said many parents are not happy with anything less than an A for their children, and she expects people to react the same way to a school grade. She said people will likely interpret average grades, like a Cs, as meaning the school is insufficient. However, Gruber said there is no way all schools can get an A rating.

She is also concerned about blaming the school and its teachers when often times struggling schools are a result of poverty, and, “99.9 percent of the time the school is doing everything it can to fill those gaps,” she said.

Gruber she is also suspect of the law because, not only did it not originate from the educators and parents within Virginia, it originated as an ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) legislation, which favors conservative and federalist legislation and promotes such legislation via state legislators, which may explain why the legislation has already been enacted into law in 14 states across the nation.

“[It makes me] wonder if the agenda isn’t to label public schools to look bad in order to push legislation to promote private schools,” Gruber said, adding that the much of the money to fund ALEC comes from private corporations.

However Gruber also said that the states that have enacted an A-F grading system for schools are unhappy with it.

“In the 14 other states, and when you look at what is going on in those states, you won’t find any of them where the parents, public educators are happy with the system. no track record of it being a successful program,” Gruber said.

The Washington Post’s November 23 article “What Virginians Don’t Know About the A-F Grading System” from their “Answer Sheet” education column explains that the Virginia initiative closely mirrors a system implemented by the Florida Public Schools from 1999-2007 as proposed by Governor Jeb Bush. According to the Post, that system was unsuccessful, which is why it is now being revamped.

Citizens responding to the Washington Post article voiced their concern that a low or failing grade would only further hurt the reputation of an underperforming school and make it even more difficult for that school to obtain and retain adequate teachers and improve the school’s overall performance. Others said that such rating systems unfairly target impoverished areas and those in well-funded areas are likely to receive all recognition.

According to a press release by the Virginia Department of Education, the initial letter grades will be announced at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year and will accompany school accreditation ratings.

According to McDonnell, the system relies on criteria that will capture a school’s overall performance and growth, college and career readiness, and the success of schools in raising achievement of their lowest-performing students.

“The new grading system will better enable us to track school performance and improve education for all Virginia students by utilizing an easy to understand and familiar format,” he said.

Virginia Secretary of Education Javaid Siddiqui agreed that the legislation will be helpful to Virginia students by promoting a standards of excellence.

“In implementing the legislation, the state board struck what I believe is an appropriate balance between maintaining high expectations for all children and recognizing the successes of schools that serve students who face significant challenges,”  Siddiqi said.

The system, while it does rely heavily on SOL test scores, also incorporates other criteria such as graduation rates. Moreover, a percentage of the scores are based upon annual improvement. In some case, such as in the high school system, SOL scores only count for 33 percent of the overall score.

“The A-F grading system was developed after months of thoughtful consideration and research as well as significant input from stakeholders, including parents, educators, school and community leaders,” said Charles Pyle spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Education.

Gruber is happy that the system does consider a balanced approached, but overall she does not think it goes far enough to present an accurate representation of the schools.

Although Republicans mainly approved the legislation, Prince William representatives voted “nay” against the school grading system. They include Jackson Miller-R of the 50th District, Bob Marshall-R of the 13th District, Rich Anderson-R of the 51st District. They likely based their legislation on the Prince William County School Boards legislative agenda that specified that Virginia eliminate their A-F School Grading Systems. Tim Hugo-R and Scott Linghamfelter-R did not vote.

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