To judge a school's success, look beyond the letter grade to see how it was assigned.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 29, 2004
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
William Welch III, 18, retook a portion of the FCAT at the Dixie Hollins Adult Education Center in St. Petersburg in June. Although Welch finished classes at Dixie Hollins in May of 2003, he failed the reading part of the FCAT by one point. Former students hoping to earn a regular diploma can retake portions of the test they did not pass.
ST. PETERSBURG - In June, two south Pinellas elementary schools got surprises when the state handed out grades based on FCAT results. And the nature of those surprises is a guide to why it's important to understand what a school grade does and doesn't mean.
At Blanton Elementary, a high-poverty school where three out of five third-graders scored below grade level in reading, principal Debi Turner was hoping for a B or a C. She was thrilled to learn the school had been awarded an A for the second year in a row.
At Bay Vista Fundamental Elementary, a highly sought fundamental school where only one in four third-graders scored below grade level in reading, principal Len Kizner was expecting an A. The principal, who retired last month, was disappointed to hear the school had been awarded a B.
There is more to a state grade than a simple letter. But the letter grade can take on a life of its own.
The scores at Blanton and Bay Vista - two vastly different schools - underline the importance of looking at how a letter grade is assigned before attempting to judge a school's success.
Under Gov. Jeb Bush's A+
plan, the state rewards schools that have high-performing students as well as schools where students are making progress. Three of the six categories that make up the grade are based on achievement and three are based on improvement.
FCATs have five levels. One is lowest, and five is highest. Schools with low scores, such as Blanton, have an opportunity to raise their overall grade while schools with high achieving students are actually penalized if their lowest-achieving students - often those at Level 3, as in Bay Vista's case - fail to show gains. Half of the lowest-achieving readers must improve. At Bay Vista they did not.
Which explains why Blanton's cumulative score of 410 actually outranked Bay Vista's score of 437 when it came to assigning a letter grade.
"The governor is mostly concerned about those kids who are not achieving," said Alex Epanchin, Pinellas' director of testing. "The system doesn't work as well for higher-achieving schools."
At Blanton, where 32 percent of fourth-graders scored at Level 1 in reading, the school didn't have to look any further to find its lowest 25 percent. But at Bay Vista, where only 4 percent of the fourth-graders were at Level 1 and 14 percent were at Level 2, the school had to dip into its Level 3 children to find the lowest 25 percent.
"Regardless of where the lowest 25 percent are, 50 percent of them have to make gains," Epanchin explained. "At the top, you have a ceiling. It's much easier to drop. When you're at the bottom, you're most likely to be gaining and going up."
That means schools such as Blanton, where students have a lot of learning gains to make, can rack up a considerable number of points for advancing their lowest students. But schools such as Bay Vista, where the majority of students are performing at grade level or above, can actually lose ground if their already high achieving students fail to make additional progress.
Kizner, the former Bay Vista principal, is well aware of the intricacies of the state's system, but that doesn't remove the sting when the grade drops. "It really has the connotation of "you didn't do your job,"' Kizner said.
There are more tangible disappointments. Each year, the state awards "A+
money" to schools that maintain A's or improve their letter grade. Last year, Bay Vista was awarded $55,964 for keeping its A. This year, the school will receive no money even though its children's scores were among the highest in the county.
"The schools have come to rely on the A+
money with all the budget cuts," said Brent Craven, president of the Bay Vista Student Advisory Council. "The kids are going to suffer."
Turner, the Blanton principal, for years said earning an A or a B on the FCAT was inconsequential. Especially in 2001, when the school labored under the shadow of a D, she maintained that Blanton's best qualities couldn't be measured by a standardized test.
"Our staff doesn't place a lot of emphasis on the grade," she said. "We know that it's comparing apples to oranges. But when we got the A, the staff was relieved. Even though we say the grade doesn't matter, it certainly felt good."
Receiving a second A validates her staff's efforts and shows the students are learning, she said. For her, the fact the grade was earned because the school's lowest-achieving students improved in no way detracts from the accomplishment.
"If you look at Blanton's scores from 2000 forward, they're going up," Turner said. "That's what's important. We win the Super Bowl by field goals, not by touchdowns."
