The anticipated release of the A-F grades were released to the state’s 1,700 plus schools from the Oklahoma State Education Department, including all six for Guthrie Public Schools.
Both Guthrie High School and Guthrie Junior High received B grades and all four elementary schools: Fogarty, Cotteral, GUES and Central all receiving C’s.
The Education Department said 50% of the schools received a B, 33% received C’s, 10% were given A’s, 5% D’s and 2% F’s.
State superintendent’s, including Guthrie’s Dr. Mike Simpson, says this calculation is distorted because it isn’t a true average of all students.
Social media was flooded with responses and many like this one.
“I know our (Guthrie) school system as a whole is better than these scores reflect…my kids are more than thriving and we have always had better than average teachers for them,” Stacey Johnston said.
The state board was set to release the report cards in early October, but delayed the report cards until today’s state board meeting.
State employees determine a school’s grade by calculating three factors: student achievement, whole-school performance and student growth.
To determine the growth report, student progress is measured against the statewide average of only students who passed state tests and showed positive improvements from one year to the next.
An example was given: a student is unable to earn points for their school grade because
they score “unsatisfactory” or “limited knowledge” on state tests, even if they make dramatic progress from one year to the next.
Simpson at the last Guthrie Board of Education meeting commented on the state’s current formula by saying, “I have little confidence on them being accurate.”
Of the six Guthrie schools, Cotteral received the lowest score of a 2.0 GPA, Central and Fogarty were next with a GPA of 2.50, Guthrie Upper Elementary scored a 2.66, Guthrie Junior High came in with a 3.33 and the highest score goes to Guthrie High School with a 3.34.
The grade scale 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.
Governor Mary Fallin released this statement: “The report cards released today give parents, students, teachers and administrators an easy way to identify success. As with any change, especially one that measures performance and demands accountability, these report cards will have their detractors. Ultimately, however, this is about what is fair and right for Oklahoma’s children, who deserve to attend schools with high standards and transparent measures of success.”
Guthrie News Page will continue to work on this story throughout the day. Refresh this page for updates.
I don’t like the way they score because I work in a small school and we don’t have enough students to have AP classes so instead of the state giving us an N/A, they scored us as an “F”. I don’t think it is right to grade something as an F that doesn’t exist. Our overall school performance was an A for both the high school and elementary, but we ended up with a final grade of a B at the high school due to the F in the classes we do not have. We ended up with a C in the prek-8th grades It’s ridiculous.
With sooooo many schools in this state that is your size Tonya, it sure doesn’t seem fair to give an F for a class that doesn’t exist.
Is anyone else kind of confused by all this? Something doesn’t seem right.