Chatham County Schools Superintendent Derrick Jordan faces a strange dilemma when he evaluates his schools’ performance grades on state tests.
The marks — which measure proficiency and growth from the previous year and produces a number and letter grade for each institution — have come under criticism in recent years for not accurately measuring each school’s work, yet districts use the data regularly.
“I’m OK with accountability,” Jordan said. “I hope that pushes us to ensure that we are taking very seriously the need to do good things for kids. But I have to be honest and say that I’m concerned about the fact that folks put all their eggs in one basket. The current accountability model does not do a solid job of recognizing all of the variables that go into schooling.”
The current system of performance grades takes into account several factors, namely end of year state tests. Elementary and middle schools are judged on their reading, math and science tests, as well as progress by English-language learners. High school scores use math, English, biology and ACT stores, along with English-learner progress, four-year graduation rates and successful completion of high-level math classes. All schools also are given a growth score.
To get the final score, the state takes the testing scores as 80 percent of the final grade and the growth score as 20 percent of the mark.
Chatham County Schools came out well in the eyes of the district, but as Jordan said, the system misses the mark.
“The grades don’t give a true indication of what’s happening every day in the schools,” he said. “To think that a student who comes in never having held a book, never been read to, should be at the same point as a student in third grade who has not only been read to every day but has ton of books and other resources in the house, I think that’s just an unfair expectation.”
Jordan and Amanda Hartness, the district’s assistant superintendent for academic services and instructional support, say schools use the grades for professional development, meaning seeing areas where schools, classes or even individual teachers might be struggling and pinpointing how changes might be made. Hartness added that the grades can help schools with yearly improvement plans, required to be approved by the school board.
“These trends are great, and it gives an overall snapshot of the district,” she said. “But where the real magic happens is really drilling down to the specific kid, teacher, subgroup kind of level, even down to the specific skill.”
Chatham Charter School’s score comes from education from third to 12th grade, meaning there are a lot of factors going into the school’s B score from this past year. Beth McCullough, Chatham Charter’s executive director of secondary programs and communications, said the school is always seeking to “raise those scores and improve student growth.”
“We use them as part of the data,” she said. “It’s one piece of many that we use in assessing ourselves. Of course, you have to kind of measure yourself of some standard at the state and national level.”
And she agrees with Jordan in not feeling the current measurement model is the right one.
“The way you’re measured matters,” she said. “I think all of us would be in agreement that we feel like student growth, where you take a student each year, is one of the most important measures that you look at and evaluate yourself on. We would like to see growth be a heavy piece of the measure.”
Multiple bills were filed in the N.C. General Assembly this session by members of both parties seeking a change to the system. Most focused on changing the scoring to 50 percent proficiency, 50 percent growth, while another suggested making proficiency and growth separate letter grades.
Jordan said the formula is “flawed.”
“When you can disaggregate the data and clearly see that it tracks socioeconomics, that’s problematic,” he said.
At last week’s One Chatham Forum, Chatham Education Foundation Executive Director Jaime Detzi echoed Jordan’s concern, particularly at schools with higher levels of low-income students.
“You’re measuring poverty in that school, the way the state of North Carolina is measuring with 80 percent academic success,” she said. “You’re not necessarily reflecting academic growth. You’re stigmatizing that school. You’re not giving the community the value of the school. It may provide you some accountability to the schools, but don’t just look at the letter grade.”
Jordan said the current way of grade evaluation can make it hard to recruit and retain teachers and shines a negative light on them sometimes unfairly.
“It is in the truest sense autopsy data,” he said.
While they wait for a change at the state level, the schools will continue to utilize the data to the best of their ability and continue to seek improvements.
“A B is OK,” McCullough said. “We like As. We obviously are striving to be in the A range, but it takes time.”
Jordan added, “I want our folks at the school level to dig into the charts and graphs. Let’s celebrate every one of the positives we can celebrate, but let’s also own the opportunities for improvement and know that it’s a work in progress.”
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.