Schools review state requirements

Jackson County School Board members discussed the statewide changes made to high school grading requirements in a special workshop last week.
Frank Waller, director of the middle and secondary education department, gave a presentation explaining the state’s changes.
Waller explained that in the 2008 legislative session, Senate Bill 1908 passed, which requires a significant change to the way high schools are graded, beginning with the 2009-10 school year.
The law demands more rigorous standards and assessments, an alignment between high school and college readiness, and high-skill or high-wage employment.
Waller stated that there are five components making up the new formula for grading schools.
“Had these new components been put in place last year, Jackson County would not have had a ‘D’ school,” Waller said.
The first component is the graduation rate. Among some of the changes associated with the graduation rate are determining who can be included in each school’s graduation rate.
Currently, any student who transfers to a public high school from either another public or private school, a juvenile justice facility or home, or adult education program, and who receives either a standard diploma or special diploma, is eligible for inclusion of the school’s graduation rate.
However, in the 2011-12 school year, only students receiving a standard diploma may be included in the calculations for a school’s graduation rate. This leaves out any students who transfer from juvenile justice facilities and adult education programs. Special diplomas will be considered non-graduates.
“This may make our graduation rates appear to go down initially, but with the other components in place, our grades will go up,” Waller said.
The second component Waller explained is the changes to participation in accelerated coursework.
For any school to receive credit for students taking any accelerated coursework, such as AP or dual enrollment, the student must take the final exam.
For dual enrollment specifically, a student must earn a grade in the course for the school to receive credit.
Individual schools are then awarded points for student participation in these programs, which help the high schools numbers and final grade.
The student’s grade on the exam also slightly affects the points given to the school.
The third component associated with the calculation of individual school grades is postsecondary readiness.
According to Waller, in order to determine college readiness among high school students, the state will look at the number of students scoring “ready” on SAT, ACT or CPT any time during their high school career, and compare that by the number of high school graduates who scored a level 3 or higher on the grade 10 FCAT in reading or mathematics.
Component four concerns the graduation rate for students at risk of dropping out.
Waller explained that if a school does not have at least 10 students who scored a level 2 or lower on both FCAT reading and mathematics in their 8th grade year, then the school’s overall graduation rate will be substituted for this measure.
The fifth component deals with growth or decline in improvement, Waller said. Schools earn an escalating number of points based on the magnitude of their improvement.
He explained that additional points, up to 20, would be awarded based on the number of points by which the school improved, as based on the performance the prior year. However, schools will lose five points if a component declines by at least 10 percentage points.
With all these components combined plus FCAT requirements, the new individual high school are graded on a scale with 1,600 points possible. There are 800 points possible for both the five high school components and FCAT components. In order to get an “A” , a school would need at least 1,059 points.
Another change that will effect school grades is an updated procedure for determining students proficiency in writing.
Beginning in the 2009-10 school year, FCAT writing essays at fourth, eighth and 10th grades will now be scored by one person, not two — making scores with half a point no longer possible. Now, the average of students who score a 3 or 4 will be used in determining the writing component of school grades.