Guthrie schools graded unfairly by the state

The Oklahoma Department of Education did not do the Guthrie school district and other similar school districts any justice when they released their controversial A-F grades last week.

State superintendents held several meetings with the state’s top educational decision makers on making the grades not go public until the grades were fair to all the schools.

Majority of the superintendents, including Guthrie’s Dr. Mike Simpson, do not mind the state releasing scores to parents and community members involved they just want a fair system.

The A-F system is based on the concept that parents and community members should be able to quickly and easily determine how schools are performing. However, it takes a 28 page booklet to break down the entire system. Quickly and easily? That is something that even superintendents are having a hard time breaking down.

State employees determine a school’s grade by calculating these factors: student achievement (33%), whole-school performance (33%) student growth (17%) and bottom 25% growth (17%). Related story: Guthrie Schools receive their report cards from the state

When the scores were revealed, Guthrie High School (3.34) and Guthrie Junior High (3.33) each received B grades and all four elementary schools: Fogarty (2.5), Cotteral (2.0), GUES (2.66) and Central (2.5) all receiving C’s.

The grade scale, which is equally hard to comprehend, is as follows: 3.75 to 4.00 equals an A, 2.75 to 3.74 is a B, 1.75 to 2.74 is a C, .75 to 1.74 is a D and .75 and below is an F.

The grade scale that most everybody recognizes is 4.0 to 3.59 is 90% (A), 3.59-3.2 is 80% (B), 3.19-2.8 is 70% (C) and so forth.

The high school, junior high GUES data that was used for their scores are relevant to what is shown. The administration staff knew what they were facing as far as grades and areas of concern as well as excelled areas.

For the other elementary schools, Simpson stated in his monthly column, the current school grading system was written for traditional elementary configurations which typically include kindergarten through fifth grade in one building.

Guthrie has utilized grade centers since the late 1960’s (elementary students are assigned a building by grade rather than region in Guthrie).  The state department made no allowances for this grade configuration.

For an example, Cotteral was graded on attendance last year and test scores of last year’s third graders. Those students have been out of the building for four years. So the attendance for Cotteral was 93.3% (a B grade) and last year’s third graders had a 69% on their reading and math scores resulting in a D score. Here is an illustration of the Cotteral report card Cotteral Report Card

The attendance disadvantage is the same for Fogarty and Central schools.

Also at Central, the achievement grade of a 69% (a D) was based on scores taken from last year’s third grade students. This scoring disadvantaged was presented to state department when Guthrie administrators spoke to them.

At Fogarty, overall student growth and bottom growth were not accessed because they did not have any previous state testing to compare it to.

“We will continue to work with our legislators and staff at the State Department of Education as this system is refined to provide relevant information about how each school is performing,” Simpson said.

Simpson has already had talks with State Representative Lee Denney (R-Cushing), one of the two authors of House Bill 1456, about the grades not showing a true reflection.

State Superintendent Janet Barresi acknowledge their would be modifications to the current system when future grades are released. Something the school superintendents have been and will continue to ask for until the grades are more clear to understand and exhibit a true reflection of all the schools in the state.