Press Release
Raleigh, N.C. – Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) issued the following response Thursday regarding the release of 2013-2014 school performance grades for North Carolina Public Schools:
“Public school grades will increase transparency, encourage support and reform for struggling schools and allow us to explore what our top performers are doing right so we can replicate their best practices elsewhere. We’re troubled by early knee-jerk reactions that appear to condemn poor children to automatic failure. And we reject the premise that high poverty schools are incapable of excelling, since today’s report shows numerous examples that are proving that myth wrong. We must give these grades a chance to work so we can learn from them and improve outcomes for our children.”
Background
In 2012, the General Assembly passed a new initiative allowing public schools to be graded A-F – just like students – and ensuring those grades are visible and well-known to parents and the public.
Under the old system, school performance was measured using vague and confusing labels like “School of Priority” or “School of Distinction” – terms that were unclear and unhelpful in giving a true picture of performance.
Now schools are given an easy to understand letter grade of A-F that is based on both student performance – in other words, if students are learning at grade level – and student growth – or whether students are progressing towards grade level rather than falling behind.
Since 2012, the legislature has already made numerous changes based on feedback from school administrators – including modifying the system to award just one grade instead of two, adjusting the grading scale to a 15-point scale rather than a 10-point scale for the first year and delaying the release of initial grades for over a year.
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction recently told legislative leaders she believes the grades are “97 percent accurate.”
