By Greg Childress

NC Newsline

The House Select Committee on Education Reform has recommended modifying the state’s A-F school performance grading system to include college readiness and learning opportunities as criteria.

Currently, school grades are based on academic proficiency and academic growth or how well students perform on standardized tests.

The recommendation to expand the A-F grading system was one of several the committee made in its report to the General Assembly ahead of the short session, which begins in April.

The new grading system the committee proposes is essentially the same one Superintendent Catherine Truitt presented last month when she and N.C. Department of Public Instruction staffers met with the committee.

The new system adds “readiness” and “opportunity performance” measures to academic (proficiency in math, reading and science) and progress (how much students grow academically from one year to the next) measures already in use.

Truitt’s proposal defines readiness as how well students are prepared for life after high school graduation. It would measure, for example, the percentage of high school students who have confirmed acceptance to college, enlistment in the military or employment. The percentage of students who complete graduation requirements within four or five years would also be an indicator to determine high school letter grades.

Meanwhile, “opportunity” takes into account chronic absenteeism, school climate and students’ participation in intra/extracurricular activities.

Lawmakers and educators have said they are particularly concerned about the state’s high absenteeism rate, which reached 31 percent during the pandemic.

“That’s very high and very concerning,” said Rep. Maria Cervania, a Wake County Democrat.

State education officials believe the new model will provide greater transparency into how schools serve kids beyond academics. That in turn, officials contend, will allow for greater accountability.

“This proposal creates a more robust state accountability model that is the best way for holding schools accountable for providing a high-quality education,” Truitt said last month.

The committee noted in its report that other states using an A-F model have a more balanced approach that relies less on student test scores.

“For example, North Carolina has math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that are comparable to other states that use an A-F school performance grade model, yet North Carolina has a significantly greater percentage of schools with D or F grades than those comparable states,” the report states.

Truitt has said that state education officials will ask lawmakers for legislation to establish a three-year pilot program to test the new grading system. The program would begin in the fall with schools that volunteer for the program. All schools would use both accountability models the second year before moving completely to the new model the third year.

Under the new model, schools would receive a separate letter grade for each of the four performance standards. Currently, schools receive a single letter grade. Eighty percent of the grade is based on test scores and 20 percent on student academic growth.

The A-F model has been controversial. Critics have argued since the system became law as part of Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s 2013 “Excellent Schools Act,” that it paints an inaccurate and unfair picture of the teaching and learning occurring in North Carolina’s schools. The letter grades are also influential as they are often used by parents to make big decisions such as where to buy homes and where to enroll children in school.

Teacher pay

The committee acknowledged the state’s difficulties in recruiting and retaining high quality teachers despite the General Assembly’s efforts to improve pay through “increased beginning teacher salaries, additional funding for teacher salaries in smaller or lower wealth counties, and bonus programs based on student performance.”

“However, the committee finds that even with these significant investments, teacher compensation has still not kept up with the rising cost of living, the increasing employment opportunities for female, college-educated professionals, or the pay for other public sector employees,” the report said. “The committee recognizes that North Carolina’s teacher compensation structure is not ensuring that hard-to-staff subject area positions and schools are sufficiently filled with highly qualified teachers.”

The committee recommended that the General Assembly continue to support North Carolina teachers and further assess compensation for teachers, as well as find ways to attract and retain teachers in hard-to-staff positions.

The state budget provides teachers with an average pay raise of 7 percent over the next two years. Newer teachers will see the largest increases with raises of more than 10 percent. The state’s most experienced teachers will only see 3.6-percent pay raises, which does not keep pace with inflation.

Gov. Roy Cooper had sought an average 18 percent teacher raise over two years.

Investigative Reporter Greg Childress covers public education in North Carolina as well as issues related to poverty, homelessness and housing policy.