Should schools with poor academics and ACT scores receive school grades of A?
The State Superintendent of schools says, “No” and we agree.
Superintendent Cade Brumley says that most of the schools in the State have rankings of A and B, but their school letter grades do not reflect the academic performance.
A school letter grade of A or B suggests that the school is an academically high-performing school, but unfortunately, that is not the case. Many schools have A or B letter grades, but the underlying data shows that the school’s academic performance is “F.”
How can that be?
The present system is designed to increase the graduation rates of high schools. Louisiana ranks among the bottom tier of states in high school graduation. To increase the graduation rate, the state has effectively made it easier to graduate from high school. The state developed a vocational track complete with alternative testing requirements to insure high graduation rates. The alternative vocational track gets the same credit as a college track, even though it is easier, and less demanding.
The result? Higher graduation rates, but fewer students prepared for four-year college.
In predominately Black schools, fewer students are graduating with ACT scores that are college acceptable. Most ACT scores in many predominately African-American schools are averaging 15, which is far below the 21 expected college entrance and most scholarships.
Many parents are deceived by the high letter grades the present system gives academically failing schools.
It’s a system of awarding letter grades weighted heavily toward a component called “strength of diploma.” A school with low ACT scores and failing academics can be called an “A” or “B” school if its “strength of Diploma” components are “A.”
The “A” ranking is misleading because the public associates “A” with academic achievement, not simply the graduation rate.
In Monroe, there are two clear examples. Wossman High School has an “A” letter grade, but its ACT scores have an “F” ranking. The same is true for its academics; that is also an “F.”
Carroll High School is ranked as a “C” school, but its academics and ACT score is the same as Wossman’s.
Brumley says 70 percent of the state’s schools are in this situation; they have letter grades that imply academic excellence, but what they really mean is that most of the students graduate.
The high letter grades often hide the more serious problem at schools, and that is that many schools are graduating more “tinkerers than thinkers.”
Tinkerers would be those who labor or repair. Thinkers would generally be those capable of higher-order specialties.
Superintendents across the state are generally opposed to the new plan because it will mean there will be fewer “A” and “B” schools in their districts. Since many superintendents have contracts that use letter grades as a measure of school achievement, Brumley’s idea of raising the standard is opposed.
Ideally, a high school diploma should mean that a student has been prepared to be a thinker or a tinkerer. Those that do both well should be rewarded.
The African-American community has much to gain from Brumley’s push to raise the standard, which will require a lot of thinking and tinkering to make it fair.
We want more college-bound graduates, but we don’t want to disincentivize the process so badly that we increase the dropout rate.
We desperately need more thinkers, and we should not flood the community colleges and trade schools to become tinkerers just because it’s easier.
The state BESE board has its hands full.
