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Times Staff WriterThe School Board plans to create its own system that will help evaluate school quality.
TAMPA - Faced with two conflicting methods of grading schools, the Hillsborough County School Board said Tuesday it will develop its own comprehensive way of evaluating schools by the first of the year.
Board members said they would like a school grading plan that gives parents a better idea of school quality than either the state's A-through-F grading system or the federal government's new standards based on the No Child Left Behind legislation.
Although the state recently said all four of Hillsborough four F schools last year improved this year, the schools did not improve enough according to federal standards. Now, students at Oak Park, Robles, Shaw and Lockhart Elementary schools may transfer to another school.
The state will soon release the names of other schools that failed to meet the standards.
Superintendent Earl Lennard said there is a disconnect between the two grading plans and believes the grading tells more about the criteria used than the actual quality of the schools.
By having a district accountability plan, Lennard said Hillsborough will be able to give parents a detailed look at how well schools are doing.
"We need to take a look at evaluating ourselves," he said.
Board members cited other districts that grade their own schools, like Plano, Texas, and Gwinnett County, Georgia.
"I'd like staff to think about how you would grade schools," said board chairwoman Carol Kurdell.