Our students are not dairy cattle
NC Public School’s Report Card: What does it mean?
Education is a hot button right now and has been for the last decade-plus. In the many conversations I have had with people one of the few consistent things I hear is school report cards; the A-F rating and/or test scores for each school. I do agree that looking at those numbers from the surface can lead to great concerns. Franklin County Schools Report Card
However, I must point out that unless you understand those numbers, which most people don’t, what you are seeing is not a true representation of the quality of the school.
What is the A-F school rating?
In 2012, the North Carolina State General Assembly passed a law to evaluate schools based on a rating of A-F. The idea was to give parents & taxpayers a quick synopsis of how a school performs. An A school would mean great and an F school would mean failing. The problem with this grading system is that the metrics do not measure the quality of the school, the quality of the teachers, or the quality of the curriculum. Nor does it take into account the academic achievements and accomplishments of the students. What it does show is the socio-economic status of the students. This evaluation did not measure progress, but instead punished the poor. Do A-F school grades measure progress or punish the poor?
Nearly every one of these “failing” schools were considered high-poverty. The state of Virginia also used the A-F rating, but after just a year got rid of it because it proved to be ineffective and not accurate. Instead of following VA and getting rid of it, the GOP-led NCGA embraced it and has used it as a cudgel to bludgeon North Carolina public schools. It gives them the manufactured evidence that North Carolina public schools are failing and parents should have the freedom of “school choice” (as they worded it) to send their children to private schools at taxpayers expense. Don’t be hoodooed by private school vouchers
It must be noted that parents and guardians have always had the right and freedom to choose where to send their child to school. In the state of North Carolina, parents and guardians have the right and freedom to choose from 5 options: public, charter, private or homeschool. The 5th option is a combination of the aforementioned with online; a virtual setting.
This is a crucial part of the overall plan to dismantle and defund public education all in the name of privatization. For privatization to be successful, anti-public school zealots need to convince you that public schools are failing our children and the only solution is to move your child to this shiny, new, fancy private school at tax-payers expense through private school vouchers.
Note: North Carolina is now a decade into private school vouchers and we are the only state in the US (with a voucher system) that does not require any accountability to the taxpayers. Meaning, these public dollars are handed to private schools with no strings attached and no accountability or transparency. It has been proven that these private school vouchers are nothing more than a tax break for the rich who are already sending their children to a private school.
How is the grade determined?
To understand how the school report card grades are determined, one needs to understand the formula. NC-based analytics company SAS developed a software system called EVASS; Education Value-Added Assessment System. It is used by K-12 public schools in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee. This software collects student data and creates reports that are used to measure teacher and school effectiveness.
Developed by SAS, the formula used for this grading system is made up of test scores from standardized tests such as the end-of-grade tests (EOGs) or end-of-course tests (EOCs). EOGs are given to all public and charter school students in grades 3-8 and EOCs are given in high school.
These tests are flawed and are not a good way to measure a child’s true learning. They do not tell a teacher anything they already do not know about that child and these high stakes tests are deeply unpopular among educators.
North Carolina’s formula for determining the A-F rating is made up of 80% achievement score (the number of students that are proficient on the EOG or EOC), graduation rates and college and workplace readiness measurements.
The remaining 20% is made up of growth. Growth looks at scores from last year and compares it to this year’s score. If learning happens, you should see growth. A student can show significant growth and still not be proficient according to North Carolina standards. They will be labeled “not proficient” because they did not meet the state’s proficiency goal which can make a child feel like a failure and the average person will interpret “not proficient” as failure, when in fact the child has not failed.
None of these metrics take into account things such as the student’s academic performance and local grades throughout the school year. You can have a straight A, honor roll, Beta Club student actually fail the EOG or not meet the state’s proficiency goal and be labeled NOT proficient by the state. When in fact this student is at the top of their grade level academically.
These metrics also do not take into account how the student was feeling the day of the test. Remember these tests are given in a moment of time and many outside factors can impact that moment from the temperature in the room, how comfortable the chair they are sitting in, what a child ate or didn’t eat for breakfast, how much sleep the child got the night before and just simple stress and anxiety from taking these tests can all impact that moment in time.
Other ongoing issues impacting a child’s learning or test taking ability is poverty, illness, mental health, disabilities, environmental stresses; all of these have a profound impact on a child’s ability to learn or take a test. None of these are taken into account when determining test scores that will ultimately label your child and determine a school’s performance grade.
What was discovered is that the majority of F schools that are now labeled as failing were high poverty and the A schools are more affluent. Again, measuring the socio-economic status of the student body rather than measuring the school’s quality. Quite often the D or F schools showed more growth than the A or B schools, but because growth is so small (only 20%) it did not have much impact on the grading of the school.
Proficiency: What it means
Proficiency is another number that gets misrepresented. First of all, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction sets the goal which is the line of proficiency. It changes each year. We do not know what the formula for setting the line of proficiency is because SAS considers it proprietary information, meaning they will not release the details to the public because they own the information.
When asked they will respond with a highly complex, convoluted response involving the mathematical formula below. This is quite effective in intimidating folks out of asking too many questions. It’s confusing and they know it. They want you confused so you don’t see this for what it really is.
The problem is the line of proficiency moves up or down from year to year. If a student makes a 3 on the EOG this year, that same test given by the same school with the same answers taken by the same student may be a 2 or a 4 the following year depending on whether or not the line of proficiency (set by the state) moves up or down. It may also remain a 3.
Proficiency is about being on level with their peers from across the state in the same subject. For example, when we see that ABC School is 37% proficient in reading. That does NOT mean that 37% can read and 63% can’t. That actually would be really bad. Unfortunately, most people will interpret those numbers as such.
What that number actually means is 37% of students at ABC School read at or above the line of proficiency (which moves from year to year and we do NOT know the formula they use to determine it) as compared to other students in the same grade and subject from across the state. The other 63% can read, they just did not meet the proficiency standards set by the state for this year, which again will be different next year and we don’t know the formula that is used to determine the line of proficiency because its proprietary information.
Comparing students to other students in the same grade and subject from across the state is a percentile ranking. This is a set up for a zero sum game where in order for some students to be labeled as “growing” others must be labeled at “shrinking”. There has to be a winner and a loser. This system is built around a curve designed to knock kids down rather than lift them up. And you wonder why so many children have anxiety.
Consider this analogy:
Running: The goal is to teach students to run and by the end of the course all able students will be able to run a mile. Proficiency may be defined by the state this year as being able to run 1 mile in 7 minutes or less. After testing, it is determined that 45% of students are proficient. That does not mean that 45% passed and 55% failed. It means 45% met the state’s proficiency goal which was to run 1 mile in 7 minutes or less. The other 55% ran their mile and completed the assessment, but did not run their mile in 7 minutes which is OK. The goal was to teach them to run and to finish the assessment by running a mile. Where they finished in time did not impact their grade, but it did impact the state’s interpretation of their achievement. The state now labels that 55% as not proficient and some people will interpret that as 55% failed, which is not true.
It must be noted that the state sets the standards or line of proficiency high on purpose to encourage continuous learning and improvement, and not meeting the standard does not denote failure or lack of basic abilities.
Growth is far more important than proficiency. Parents really should focus more on growth than proficiency. Growth is determined by comparing this year’s test scores to last year’s. When I taught reading I always looked at growth and we celebrated growth! That means the student is doing better, regardless of whether or not they are deemed proficient by the state.
The deck is stacked against students and that is why I encourage parents and guardians to not judge your child based on their EOG score. Between percentile ranking (zero sum) and scale scores, which really complicates the data, because with scale scores only a certain percent will be allowed to make a 5 and a certain percent has to fail. In North Carolina the reading level labels based on cut scores are predetermined as follows:
Around 10% will score a 5
Around 20% will score a 4
Around 20% will score a 3
Around 50% will score a 2 or 1 and will be labeled not proficient.
Educators, such as myself, are appalled by our state legislature, the education bureaucrats at NCDPI and contractors like SAS that continue to support a system that is designed to make our children fight an uphill battle to prove their worthiness in a system designed to only tell 50% of them they’re good enough. They care more about curves, quotas and secret formulas than children. They don’t care about how EVASS impacts our public schools as private school vouchers continue to be aggressively pushed in this state.
So when you see a school’s report card grade or test scores, remember do not pass judgment on just the numbers, understand where those numbers come from and how they are formulated.
If you have children in the public school system, I want you to understand that your child is more than that test score. Look at your child’s growth over the school year, pay attention to your child’s report cards, and listen to what your child’s teachers say about your child.
They know your child far better than a test score that is modeled from a formula that was originally used to increase plant growth and cull dairy herds. North Carolina needs to moooooo-ve away from this terrible system.
Below are links to dive deeper into this. These are from the research done by fellow NC public school teacher Kim Mackey. A 4 part series “Bursting The Bubble”.
