If you’ve spent any time looking at public schools in your area, you’ve likely come across the NC School Report Cards. For clarity sake, this does not refer to an individual child’s report card that you receive from your teacher but instead, it is a report on the overall school and district’s performance and how it compares to other schools in North Carolina. In this article we’ll explore the ins and outs of these school performance measures and how they can help you find a good school (or maybe not- stay tuned!).
Do school performance grades tell the whole story?
As of May 2023, there are 9 states in the nation that use an A-F letter grading system to rate overall school and district performance. In North Carolina, all public schools, including charter schools, have received performance grades since the 2013-14 school year. In theory, a parent could look at a school’s performance grade and see that an “A” means a great school and an “F” means a failing school. But unfortunately this couldn’t be further from the truth. Research has shown time and again that overall school performance grades do not measure the quality of a school but instead they are strong indicators of the socioeconomic status of the students in that school.
Take a look at the image below. You can see that the higher the rate of economically disadvantaged students in a school, the lower the grade of their school. So does this mean that all schools that serve disadvantaged populations are failing? Absolutely not. Let’s dig into why this is.
How are school performance grades determined?
In North Carolina, the performance grades are determined by 2 main factors:
- 80% of the grade comes from an Achievement Score- This essentially means the percent of students who are proficient on the End-of-Grade or End-of-Course tests, as well as English Learner progress on proficiency tests. For high schools this Achievement Score also includes graduation rates and performance on standardized tests that indicate college/career readiness.
- The remaining 20% of the overall grade comes from a Growth Score- This indicates how much students have learned (or grown) compared to last year’s scores.
Many educators advocate for an increased reliance on growth scores which are a more accurate representation of student learning. Imagine the scenario where a student enters the 4th grade and is reading at a 2nd grade reading level. Over the course of 4th grade, they make significant gains and they finish the year at reading level expected of a beginning 4th grader- they made over 1 year of reading improvement. But their EOG scores (which factor into the school’s Achievement Score) show that they are “not proficient.” However, you can see from their growth that they are likely in a well-resourced environment with a good teacher and a simple “not proficient” score does not paint the full picture.
So how are NC schools really doing?
When you look at other states that use the A-F grading system, North Carolina produces fewer “A schools” and more “D/F schools” than their counterparts. You might think this means that North Carolina schools are not stacking up against other states. But this is not true. When you consider the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores across the nation, North Carolina’s scores are higher than most of the comparison states, strongly suggesting that NC schools are performing much better than the state’s grading system suggests.
How you can use the NC School Report Cards
If you’re looking for the “right school” for your child, I want you to start here to understand the full picture of what it means to find a “best fit” school for your family. But these school report cards do have some helpful information in them, though it can be tedious to sift through the information to determine what it really means.
Below you will find a list of the Top 4 things to look for in a school report card (and what they mean)
- Academic Growth– The school will be awarded one of three categories: Did not meet expected growth, Met expected growth, or Exceeded expected growth. Growth expectation is based on the average amount of academic growth for all students across the state. The standard expectation is roughly equivalent to a year’s worth of expected growth. One caveat is that growth can be easier to achieve in students who are under-performing. So a growth score is still inextricably linked to where a student started but as mentioned above, many educators still prefer this measure over raw test scores of proficiency.
- Average Class Size– A large number of studies have demonstrated that smaller class sizes raise student achievement in both the long and the short term. See how the school you’re interested in compares to other schools in the district and the state for class sizes.
- Proficiency in Subject Areas– I like to view these proficiency scores broken down by Subgroup, meaning you can see how students performed based on race, socioeconomic status, disability status, etc. This can be helpful for two reasons: if the school has a low overall grade, you may see that some of this can be explained by the diversity of the school in terms of English Learners or students with disabilities. Additionally, it can be helpful to get an idea of how your student might fare in this school depending on what category they fall into. It’s still important to remember that proficiency scores simply come from a standardized test which has its own inherent challenges and does not accurately reflect all of the learning and progress that is happening inside the school.
- Teacher Qualifications– The Teacher Effectiveness gives a snapshot of how the teachers are evaluated at the school. Also, the Teacher Qualifications chart shows the percentage of teachers who are “experienced” versus “beginning” as compared to the district and state averages. Again, this can give you a little insight into what type of teachers there are which may affect the quality of instruction.
Use caution when interpreting these grades
The school performance grades were designed to hold schools accountable and to provide easy-to-access data for parents and community members about the health of their schools. Unfortunately, we see that the scores actually reflect the affluence of the school instead of the actual learning taking place within the school. The over-reliance on these raw test scores does not reflect the learning that takes place in non-tested classes, the climate and safety of the school, the community of the school and level of parental involvement, nor the commitment of the teachers, and it leads to students who are borderline passing being given additional attention to the detriment of others.
There’s an incredible video here which does a great job of explaining how sites like GreatSchools.org take advantage of these school grades.
What you can do
It’s important to visit schools and talk with parents in your community to determine if a school is going to be a good fit for your child. When touring a school and speaking with administrators, a great question you can ask is: “How should I interpret this school’s test scores? What are they telling me? And what are they not telling me?”
Many busy parents don’t have the time to do such a deep dive. We are here to help. At Triangle School Consulting, we believe that these scores are just one piece of the puzzle. Our connection to the local community and to our schools means that we have firsthand knowledge of how schools are doing by assessing things such as school environment, leadership, teacher retention, and parental involvement. We have the insider knowledge to help you pick a great school for your child. Contact us today!