Letters to the editor

Grading system doesn’t reflect true picture of schools

Dear Editor:
In 2015, the 84th Texas Legislature enacted HB 2804 which in turn established an A-F rating system for public school districts and campuses to be implemented Sept. 1, 2017 (TEC 39.054). 
It is important to realize that the rules of the game were not established before Spring 2016 testing and that the Texas Education Agency has released A-F ratings eight months before the program rating system was legally scheduled to begin. 
The commissioner has prepared a preliminary report for all schools using 2015-16 data for the Legislature that is his first attempt to comply with the law. This report is one possible demonstration of an approach that assigns letter grades to each school. 
These first preliminary ratings are based on a system that is not proven by research. “A - F rating systems such as this fail to account for varying socioeconomic conditions that influence performance. 
This first report to the legislature is not necessarily the final product in this effort. Our teachers and students work hard and academics are our first priority.  
All Cass County schools received “Met Standard” on state testing in 2016 and in fact, several received distinctions, including English/Language Arts & Reading, Closing Performance Gaps, Math, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Student Progress, and Postsecondary Readiness. 
Unfortunately, with the data that the commissioner has chosen to use in this new report, schools in Cass County did not score highly as a whole.  
The  A–F ratings are not consistent with the traditional notion of grades that we received when we were in school.  For many years, most people have considered a score of 90 or above to be an A.
 But in this rating system, that is not the case. For example, in one domain, it takes a score of 99 to make an A, and 91 is considered to be a D. Upon examining the cut scores, it is apparent that it would be almost impossible to make the highest grade in this domain, they explained. 
In this domain, student attendance is rated and at one Cass County campus, a score of 95.6 resulted in a rating of C, even though attendance at the school is historically very high according to traditional measures. Having only a spread of eight points between an A and a D on this domain makes it very difficult to score highly. Other domains also have similar results.  
We take this report very seriously and we will use what we learn from it to improve education, where needed.
 Because approximately 55 percent of the rating comes from the results of STAAR testing, most of the report is based on how well the students performed on just one day of the year on one test. Our schools strive to provide a well-rounded education for all of our students, all of the time. 
This system leaves the public with an invalid, disconnected reflection of school quality. We have great schools in Cass County. This report does not reflect all of the wonderful things going on in our schools, from fine arts to athletics and UIL academic competitions, to career and technology, science, and much, much more. 
Our dedicated teachers and support staffs work hard all year to teach all of our children. Unfortunately, we are judged on one day’s performance when the entire year is so meaningful in the lives of all of our students.

Sincerely,

Jackie Smith, Avinger ISD superintendent; Brian Stroman, Bloomburg ISD superintendent; Charlotte Williams, Queen City ISD superintendent; Cathy May, McLeod ISD superintendent; Sidney Harrist, Atlanta ISD superintendent; Sarah Dildine, Hughes Springs ISD superintendent; Trevor Rogers, Linden-Kildare CISD superintendent