Apparently this new state budget does a lot more to North Carolina education than anybody thought.
This year was supposed to be the first time the state Department of Public Instruction issued letter grades, A-F, for each school in North Carolina. The grades would be determined by how well students did on standardized tests for math, reading and science.
The system was created in 2012 by the state legislature, and it's been somewhat controversial. Organizations like the North Carolina School Boards Association have said they're worried because the grades don't take into account student improvement.
The first grades were due out in October, along with the rest of the state's school report cards, with information like average class size and test score data.
But page 41 of the budget pushes that back. Now, they can come out no earlier than Jan. 15, 2015.
This appears to be news to DPI. Spokeswoman Vanessa Jeter said they're now trying to figure out if they should hold off on just the letter grades or on this year's school report card in general.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
School letter grades will have to wait
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14 comments:
...part of a trend going back decades.
Lack of data, erroneous data, massaged/spun data or no data at all.
So when will students get official test results? The ones they got at the end of the year were "unofficial." And when will teacher growth ratings be available through EVAAS?
How much tax money will be wasted on this? A tuned in parent knows how good their kids schools are. They don't need a weird formula telling them.
Anon 4:00, I'm hearing that official test results will be released in early September. Don't know about EVAAS.
Data in this state is so fake! Everyone in CMS talks about data but they really have no clue what it means. Data can be spun in any direction you like. Can't you just trust your professionals to do their job?
Has there been any word on what the CMS supplement will be on the new salary schedule? When will the district be able to publish this information?
Conveniently pushed back until after the election. Which of the two competing formulas will be used? The House and Senate had dramatically different versions. But whatever version is used, it's another Jeb Bush "innovation" that like Read to Achieve does more harm than good.
anon 4:01,
I agree with you 100%, tuned in parents know what is going on with their child's education.
Here's the problem I have with all of the data mining , it's garbage.
As a parent you need to look below the surface when evaluating a school, that means being an involved parent. A concept that is foreign to many and is something not considered when judging teachers and schools.
If one were to look at the school system where my children attend, you would find the test scores are not impressive overall.
My eldest child is a rising freshman at A.L. Brown High school, she is 98% proficient in mathematics and 97% proficient in reading/Language Arts. KCS has done an amazing job with my children. If I would have used "data" and trends in eduction to choose where I send my children to school, they would have missed out on a first class education. My children were lucky in that neither I or my wife got caught up in all of this education reform crap!
Another example of the state "dumbing down". From graduation requirements to the athletic participation requirements, this will never justify the millions wasted in this state on consultants and PfP test creation.
Now they are "dumbing down" the teaching canidates. No educated "best and brightest" graduate would enter a job with sub par benefits and max salary at $50,000.
Heath, what about the thousands and thousands of families in Mecklenburg county that pay county/state taxes and are attending private schools. You should be thankful all those students aren't attending CMS.
You ASSUME MOrrison cares about students.
He will do for them what he has done "caring" for his teachers.
If you really care about your tax money you should demand an independent audit of the ivory tower spending.
Let's discuss how weird the "grades" are. One of the components is a school's graduation cohort rate, or what % of students graduate within 4 years. In NC, if the parents of a a student with special needs opts to keep their child at a school until he/she is 21 (as is a FEDERAL MANDATE allowing this), that student counts AGAINST a school's graduation cohort %. So, if a school has 5 kids who have finished 4 years of high school in a special education program, but the parents opt to keep their kid in school, as is the law, NC OPTS to DING the school's overall %, which, in turn, can drop them in the "grading". We won't even discuss the crap on a page with bubbles that are the READY assessments or that students with special needs who get a completion diploma are REQUIRED by the STATE to take these READY assessments and that teacher earns whatever % his/her students receive, so maybe you have a 20% , that gets COMBINED with the scores of the other teachers of that subject who teach the general population's % for the final % for a school -- effectively LOWERING the % proficient. How about that? A student, due to developmental issues, can't be in the general population classroom, but has to take the SAME state exam as every other student, honors, etc. and those scores COUNT for the school. So, how accurate ARE these "grades" really? I call BS.
When children do not want to show their report card it usually mean they did not do well, but in my opinion with NC DPI it means they know they failed our children well they refusing to educate mine but they excepted money to do so! and they taking one of their grace periods to either come up with a way they can explain it an it not be their fault or to find an error so they can say the report is not accurate at all. Is this the same NC DPI demanding transperancy from NC Charter Schools not the same NC DPI saying oh no! we not going to reveal that right now probably because they have nothing to reveal because if it was due in October and this is August and they figured who was going to ask them for it , themselves we dont think so! they'll be created !!! just us watch an see the high marks they give themselves NC DPI!!! all would do good if we graded ourselves lol.
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