State releases School Report Card for local school district
7 of 14 county schools exceed growth status, 3 met, 4 did not meet
Staff report
* Feb. 5 — Our Turn: Teachers can’t teach if students don’t show up
* Feb. 5 — Charlotte Observer: Scores reflect student family incomes
* Jan. 26 — Superintendent: More to report cards than letter grades
Richmond Senior High School students brought home their second semester report cards on Wednesday. If they wanted a bit of leverage in weakening their parents’ reaction to a bad grade here and there, that leverage arrived today.
At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the North Carolina Department of Instruction released the letter grades for school districts across the state. In Richmond County, grades for Leak Street and Cordova schools were not calculated. However, the letter grades for the 14 remaining schools were less than stellar: seven Ds, six Cs and a bright spot, a B for Richmond Early College High School.
Beginning with the 2013–14 school year data, legislation passed during the 2013 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly, the state is required to assign and distribute School Performance Grades (A–F) based on test scores, and for high schools additional indicators that measure college-and-career readiness.
The School Performance Grades are based on student achievement (80%) and growth (20%). The indicators and the proficiency standard or benchmark used for achievement include:
- Annual end-of-grade (EOG) mathematics and reading assessments in grades 3–8 and science assessments in grades 5 and 8 (Level 3 and above)
- Annual end-of-course (EOC) assessments in Math I, Biology, and English II (Level 3 and above)
- The percentage of graduates who complete Math III, Algebra II, or Integrated Math III with a passing grade
- The percentage of grade 11 students who achieve the minimum score required for admission into a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina on The ACT (composite score of 17)
- The percentage of graduates identified as Career and Technical Education concentrators who meet the Silver Certificate or higher on the ACT WorkKeys assessment
- The percentage of students who graduate within four years of entering high school (Standard [4-Year] Cohort Graduation Rate)
The EVAAS model, which provides the growth measure, uses current and previous student test data to determine whether schools are maintaining or increasing student achievement from one year to the next. In the event that a school does not have a Growth Score, only the School Achievement Score is used to calculate the Performance Score.
For the final Performance Score and Grade, if a school’s growth designation is Meets or Exceeds Expected Growth, but the inclusion of the school’s Growth Score reduces the school’s Performance Score and Grade, the School Achievement Score only may be used for the Performance Score and Grade. For 2013–14, there were seven (7) schools that met this exception, and growth was not included in their final grades.
For 2013–14, the grade designations are set on a 15 point scale as follows:
A = 85 to 100
B = 70 to 84
C = 55 to 69
D = 40 to 54
F = 39 or less
A breakdown by each Richmond County school with the SPG score, followed by overall score:
B (72, 73) – Richmond Early College High School
C (64, 58) – L.J. Bell Elementary School
C (63, 55) – Rockingham Middle School
C (62, 56) – Fairview Heights Elementary School
C (60, 52) – Washington Street Elementary School
C (59, 52) – East Rockingham Elementary School
C (55, 47) – Hamlet Middle School
D (54, 54) – Richmond Senior High School
D (53, 44) – Ellerbe Middle School
D (49, 42) – Mineral Springs Elementary School
D (48, 41) – West Rockingham Elementary School
D (47, 40) – Monroe Avenue Elementary School
D (42, 35) – Rohanen Middle School
D (40, 36) – Richmond County Ninth Grade Academy
Of the 2,565 public schools and public charter schools, 2,424 received School Performance Grades for the 2013–14 school year. The 141 schools not included in the report may not have any tested grades or may have a transient or very small student population. Typically these schools are K–2 schools, special education schools, and alternative schools. Table 1 and Figure 1 provide the number and percent of the 2,424 schools that received each letter grade (A–F). The majority of all schools received a letter grade of C or better.
Growth
Though only counted as 20 percent of the overall School Performance Grade, the amount of growth a school’s students demonstrate for the year indicates the school’s success in moving student achievement forward, a key criterion for sustained improvement. As reported to the State Board of Education on September 4, 2014, 74.7 percent of all schools, public and public charter, met or exceeded growth expectations for 2013–14.
Seven of the county’s 14 rated schools exceeded growth expectations — East Rockingham, Ellerbe Middle, Fairview Heights, Hamlet Middle, L.J. Bell, Rockingham Middle and Washington Street.
Three schools met growth expectations — Mineral Springs, Monroe Avenue and West Rockingham.
Four schools failed to meet growth expectations, including the county’s bright spot on the report card — Richmond Early College, Ninth Grade Academy, Richmond Senior and Rohanen Middle.