The A-F school grading bill was one of the more misguided
pieces of legislation passed in the last session. Implementation of this measure will unfairly
affect high-poverty schools and exacerbate the current academic disparities that
typify Virginia public education.
We cannot accurately reflect school performance across 34 mandated SOL
exams, hundreds of state standards and regulations, and over 200 hundred
evaluation components in the federal No Child Left Behind Act with a single
letter grade “A-F.”
The current School Report Card published by the Virginia Department of
Education lists more than 300 data points of school assessment. So how might a single letter grade accurately
reflect school performance across all of these standards and regulations?
VEA’s legislative agenda calls for the repeal of A-F, and Delegate Kaye
Kory’s HB 318 does just that.
Interestingly, there are also a number of measures to alter the bill or
delay implementation. Delegate Krupicka’s
HB 553 assigns 5 grades to each school.
Senator John Miller and Delegate Monty Mason have introduced similar
bills to delay implementation, add additional measures to the formula used to
derive the grade, and compare schools with similar demographics, HB 618 and SB324.
There are and probably will be other bills on this topic. A-F will be a
hot topic this session.
I write on the first day on the session – let’s hope by session’s end
that we have a better measure for our schools.
