Robbinsville – According to the 2018-2019 school performance grades, all three Graham County schools are operating at a “C” level.
However, as Robbinsville Elementary School Principal Jaime Hooper said, “A child is more than a test score.”
Since 2013, every public school in North Carolina has earned a yearly performance grade, a simple A-F score meant to hold schools accountable, provide parents with easy-to-understand data and target school improvement. Yet, some educators argue that the performance scores focus on test results rather than school growth, offer a misleading picture of a school’s true performance and reflect the relative wealth of a school’s population rather than actual achievement.
While Graham County’s school performance numbers of 62 at both the elementary and middle schools and 69 at the high school fall within the C range, the state of education in our county is more complicated than one letter can indicate.
Graham County Director of Testing and Accountability Kevin White emphasized that a school’s overall grade is 80 percent test results and only 20 percent school growth, as measured by the Education Value-Added Assessment System.
“That can put small, rural districts at a disadvantage,” said White. “In a school this small, if just a few children drop out or do poorly on a standardized test, that can drive our test result score way down. School growth, to me, is a more accurate indicator of school performance.”
If one only looks at Graham County’s school achievement score of 57.8 at the elementary level, 56.3 at the middle school and 66 at the high school, these numbers might seem dire.
However, the school growth score casts Graham County Schools in a different light: 80.9 at the elementary, 82.8 at the middle school and 80.6 at the high school.
According to Public Schools First NC, the assessment system model for school growth “uses current and previous student test scores to determine whether schools are maintaining or increasing student achievement from one year to the next.”
Judged by the system’s model alone, all Graham County schools have met expectations for growth, yet this achievement only counts for 20 percent of the overall school performance score.
Over the years, the General Assembly has seen calls from the House for the A-F grading formula to be re-calibrated to emphasize growth, with a 50/50 split between test scores and growth being a more accurate assessment. White agrees that 50/50 would be a more fair assessment.
The Public School Forum of NC also suggests that lower letter grades should identify schools for additional state support in the form of curricular and professional development as well as funding from state coffers.
The possibility of increased funding for struggling schools is particularly important considering the direct correlation between high rates of poverty and lower test scores.
According to Public Schools First NC, “Of the 21.7 percent of schools receiving a D or F grade, 95 percent were serving high poverty populations.”
The 2019 Road Map of Need indicates that many Graham County students deal with socio-economic challenges that manifest in a myriad of ways, from low-family income to food insecurity to teen pregnancy, all of which can negatively affect student learning as well as school performance grades.
Of course, these problems did not suddenly emerge in 2019. As Principal Hooper said, “In Graham County, poverty is historic.”
In spite of this, “For a rural public school, our performance grades are pretty good,” said Robbinsville High School Principal David Matheson. “The school grade is a pretty poor indicator as to how well our school is doing. What’s more important to me is that students learn and grow. That’s more important than just proficiency.”
“The problem I have with us being a C school is that we’re taking care of these kids, not just academically, but we take care of physical needs, putting clothes on their backs, supplying eyeglasses,” said Matheson.
“Our teachers and staff are just amazing and we have a great deal of community support, as well and these school grades don’t necessarily reflect that.”
Principal Hooper reminded us that the elementary school scores did “nudge up a couple of percentage points in growth last year.” That growth is a hard-won number, earned by a multi-faceted approach including a literacy coach, reading intervention and research-based reading programs.
“We’ve worked really hard to align academics and use data to address skill deficits,” Hooper said. “We are not just teaching to a test; we are teaching skills to close deficit gaps. Instead of focusing on the test, we are focusing on skills that will help both in the classroom and on standardized assessments. We have no problem with accountability, but testing is not our primary focus. Our goal is to focus on the standards and the skills that students need.”
“I cannot put into words how supportive the community is to the school,” Hooper said. “We could not do all that we do with these kids without that community support.”
School Superintendent Angie Knight emphasized that the entire district is doing well in spite of significant challenges, but that “we have high expectations of our students. We always strive to do better, and we will never quit doing our best to help our students achieve.
“We are dedicated to the children of this community.”
School test results may be found at ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/.