RALEIGH -- North Carolina's largest school system didn't have any schools with a failing grade and 10 percent of Wake County schools earned an "A."
It's report card day at Vance Elementary School in Raleigh; not for the students, but for the school itself.
Under the state's new school performance grading system, Vance Elementary earned a "C," a grade people at the school aren't happy about.
“I think we're so much more than a ‘C,’” said Principal Sarah Simmons. “I know we're so much more than a ‘C.’ I hope people come to find out what we're all about and dig a little bit deeper.”
The school grades are based mostly on students' scores on standardized tests, with very little emphasis on student improvement or growth.
“It doesn't show our children's creativity,” teacher Mindy King said of the score. “It doesn't show [students’] responsibility. It doesn't show the hard work they come in every single day and they put in.”
“I'm all about pro-accountability,” Simmons said. “However, I think [the grade] might be misnamed. It might be more appropriate to call it an [End of Grade (EOG)] score or an EOG report card since that's the only data point it took into account. I think when parents want to know how their school really performed for the year, they're going to have to dig a little deeper.
Of the 163 Wake County Public Schools that received grades, here’s the scores:
· A – 16 schools (10 percent)
· B – 69 schools (42 percent)
· C – 60 schools (37 percent)
· D – 18 schools (11 percent)
· F – 0 schools (0 percent)
School leaders want to see more balance in the grading system between student achievement and student growth.
“We have work to do and until we're at 100 percent proficiency and 100 percent growth, we always have work to do,” Simmons said. “However, we are so much more than one test score and one grade, just like your child is so much more than one test they take on one day.”