Florida released its schools' grades about ten days ago, and I've been holding off on posting about our high school's grade, until I decided exactly what I wanted to say. I'm still not sure exactly what I want to say, but enough already with the waiting.
For the record, our school earned a "C". Ick.
Grades are based on schools' scores in 8 categories related to the state's FCAT tests, which are then totaled, and applied against a scale. In our case, 2 of our 8 scores weren't earned by our students, because they are on tests that 10th graders (writing) and 11th graders (science) take - and we only had 9th graders this year. So in those categories, our school received the district average score to count toward our grade. In the other categories, our performance was a mixed bag compared both to schools in our district, and schools throughout the state. We outperform both the district and the state averages in terms of percentage of 9th graders scoring at or above grade level - but those levels are still too low (43% in reading, 72% in math).
More important to me - because it represents how we did in moving kids forward from where they were, regardless of whether they were high or low performing to begin with - our percentage of students showing a year's worth of learning gains was also a mixed bag of results. Exact comparisons are tough, because the data we have compares our school's 9th graders with the rest of the district-and-state's 9th and 10th graders (and 10th graders typically perform better on the test, both because they're over the adjusting-to-high-school hump, and because the 10th grade test is the one that "counts" for graduation, so people theorize that 10th graders take the test more seriously). That said, comparing our 9th graders to others' 9th-and-10th graders, we're about in the middle in terms of overall student population showing learning gains in reading and math.
One of our brightest spots is in our area of improving the reading scores of our lowest quartile of students. In that area, we outperformed all high schools in our district, and are actually among the top 20% in the state in that area. It's not enough, mind you - none of this will ever be enough until every one of our students is at grade level, and every student is showing at least a year's worth of progress every year - but it's an interesting highlight.
As a first year school, it's not a bad start. We had so many processes, and practices, and procedures, to try to put into place this year, that we're not at all surprised by our scores, or our grade. But "it's not a bad start" is also not enough, and none of us on the staff will be satisfied until we've made the adjustments necessary to bring our students' performance up and, in doing so, bring our school's grade up from an "average" C. I have every confidence that we'll do so - we've already identified some things we want to change for next year, and neither our students nor our staff are happy with where we were at this year with our FCAT performance... we're not an 'average' school, our students aren't 'average', our teachers aren't 'average', and so we all know we can do better, and are determined to do just that, next year.
I think, though, that the biggest reason I held off on posting about this is due to the intense, conflicting feelings I have about this entire process. As I've said previously on this blog, I understand the need for accountability, and certainly these scores are an important indicator in that arena. But as I've also said, it drives me up a wall that our school's grade, the 'sum total' of how we're viewed by the general public, is based upon this one week's worth of tests. Nothing else we do - not our courses, or our nurturing of '21st century skills', or our students' growth in using technology or in the so-called soft skills of collaboration, communication, and so on - none of it matters in the grade that is stamped upon us.
I hesitate to even write that, because to some it will smack of rationalizing, or excuse-making. That's not the case - I'd say the same thing, even if we were an "A" school performing among the top in the state. As a staff we WON'T rest until our students are demonstrating appropriate progress on these tests, and are performing 'at grade level', because that DOES matter, and matter A LOT. Neither, however, will we give in to the mindset that this is the only thing that matters, because it is not. I'll push our staff - and they'll push themselves - to bring kids forward on these tests... but not at the expense of the creative, and significant, work they have our kids do. I believe we can have both - the creative, less-easily-assessed but important skill growth, and the test-able performance progress. We'll just keep on working at making 'em smarter.
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