A bill to delay and possibly change the proposed A-F grading scale for public schools is making its way through the General Assembly.
The House of Delegates Education Committee approved a bill last week that would delay implementation of the A-F school grading system that ranks schools based on SOL performance. A school that gets an “A” receives full accreditation and a school that receives an “F” can lose accreditation.
When the new A-F system was approved by the General Assembly in February last year, York Superintendent Eric Williams and WJCC Superintendent Steven Constantino both publicly rebuked the system. Both superintendents contended the bill insulted the community’s intelligence.
“I don’t understand why the legislature would think the public is so stupid they couldn’t understand what ‘accredited with warning’ means,” Constantino said in February 2013. “I’m perplexed why legislation was passed with no rubrics, no metrics. It suggests this is more beneficial politically.”
On Feb. 19, the House Education Committee approved SB324, a bill that delays the deadline for development of the grading system from Oct. 1 of this year to Oct. 1, 2017. The bill already passed the Senate on Feb. 4 after a 23-17 vote.
Sen. John Miller (D-1), who introduced the bill, said A-F grading is flawed and reflects wealth disparity rather than truly measuring the merit of a school.
“The A-through-F grading only grades poverty,” Miller said. “It doesn’t give a true indication of what goes on in schools.”
This past week the House Committee on Education combined SB324 with House Bill 1229, a companion bill that would delay implementation by one year.
Before he introduced his bill, Miller said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia Wright requested the delay, saying more data needs to be collected to make a fair assessment of schools.
Miller’s draft of the bill sought to include in the new system grades for qualifications and experience of teachers, per-pupil spending, percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunches, extracurricular activities and percentage of English language learners, which didn’t make it into the current version of the bill.
“The criteria need to include more factors that impact a child’s education,” Miller said. “If we’re going to give a grade, we ought to give a grade that properly reflects what’s happening in our schools.”
While Miller’s bill made suggestions about what factors should be considered while assigning accreditation grades to schools, the version now before the House leaves that up to future legislation. Standards of accreditation, state and federal accountability and student growth indicators are three factors mentioned in the current version that would help determine how to assign school grades.
The Virginia Education Association opposed the A-F accreditation system with VEA President Meg Gruber saying schools with high numbers of English language learners, low-income kids and special education students may affect a school’s grade and cause a larger divide between those schools and highly graded schools.
“Research will show you that there is not one state that has implemented an A-to-F grading system of their public schools that has been accurate or successful,” Gruber said. “Florida right now is looking at placing a moratorium on it because it’s so flawed … Why are we putting in place a system that isn’t working anywhere else?”
The bill awaits a third reading this week and is expected to go to a vote before the General Assembly adjourns on March 8.
Chris Suarez of the Capital News Service contributed to the reporting in this article.
