The Oklahoma State Department of Education recently released the state’s A-F Report Card which ranks schools based on standardized testing results.

The Report Card is comprised of two sections each making up half of the grade.

The first section is “Student Performance (which) consists of student assessment scores from the summer and winter/trimester 2012 testing window as well as the spring 2013 testing windows. (The calculations did not count scores of below proficiency that occurred during a disruption in spring testing.) Ten or more student test scores were needed to qualify for a grade.”

The second section is “Student Growth which compares current student test scores to those of the prior year. Only students with previous exam scores were included in the formula. Students received one growth point if they met one of the following criteria: an increase in proficiency level from one year to the next; maintaining a proficient or advanced level for both years; or meeting or exceeding the Oklahoma Performance Index score from one year to the next. (The index score is derived from averaging scores of all students who demonstrated positive growth for the year.) Student growth is divided into two parts, each of which equals 25 percent of the grade: overall student growth and the growth among the lowest-performing 25 percentile of students. Schools also can earn up to 10 bonus points, depending on whether it is elementary, middle or high school. These points can be awarded for a school’s attendance rate; dropout rate; high school graduation rate; advanced coursework (such as participation in pre-Advanced Placement, honors, International Baccalaureate, concurrent enrollment or qualifying CareerTech courses); college entrance exams; eighth-grade graduation rate; and overall end-of-instruction exam performance.”

Source: “A-F FAQs” http://afreportcards.ok.gov/Docs/AFFAQs.pdf

In a letter addressing the most recent report card, Mid-Del Superintendent Dr. Rick Cobb and Norman Superintendent Dr. Joe Siano stated, “Known as A-F, the system does not accurately measure the performance of schools or teachers, nor does it reflect the success of our students. This year’s release of the report cards is particularly unfortunate. The state legislature and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) already have recognized significant flaws in the system, yet the OSDE is still required to release the reports.”

The letter was signed by over 200 Oklahoma superintendents.

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in a statement, “I am committed to a system of accountability that is accurate, reliable and meaningful,” Hofmeister said. “In its current form, the A-F Report Cards are too flawed to be useful. I am optimistic that we can have a better system.”

Statewide this year, there were 212 A’s, 497 B’s, 536 C’s, 333 D’s and 183 F’s.

By contrast, last year, there were 284 A’s, 470 B’s, 492 C’s, 292 D’s and 196 F’s.

The scores for EOC schools from this Report Card are below.