No more school grades? Utah House committee passes bill that would end the practice.

Utah schools would no longer get a letter grade each year for performance — a system that has been largely criticized for relying too much on test scores and accounting too little for diversity — under a bill that gained committee approval Monday.

The measure to do away with the controversial A through F grades has come up in the Legislature almost every year since they were first put in place in Utah five years ago. But this session, with the leaders who previously opposed those bills now retired, the effort could gain some momentum.

“A single letter grade is too simplistic,” said the sponsor, Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights. “It doesn’t always tell us what is really going on in the school.”

The bill, HB198, kicked off with the necessary support and a unanimous vote from the House Education Committee. It now goes to the full body for consideration.

The move also comes after a one-year reprieve where Utah schools were allowed to drop letter grades for 2018 and instead provide rankings that broke down achievement and growth, the progress of English learners and, for high schools, how well they prepare students for continuing education. The new model, still based in part on standardized test scores, was heralded by teachers and principals for providing more nuance.

But the state had mandated a return to regular grades next year.

“I have to say the change to the system this year was met like a breath of fresh air after years of inversion,” Poulson added. “It forced us to look deeper, to look at the details.”

The new system used five terms in place of grades: exemplary, commendable, typical, developing or critical needs. The Utah Legislature still defined those as essentially equal to A through F. If this bill passes, a school would receive one overall ranking in addition to the breakdowns for each category.

Though it would be mostly “a semantics change,” Poulson said, many at the committee hearing Monday believe the new terms have more positive connotations and can show the places where schools are excelling.

“An ‘F’ says you’re failing. A ‘critical needs’ say you’re ailing and we need to help this school,” said Heidi Matthews, president of the Utah Education Association. “It’s really important to note that the elimination of school grades results in shift from blaming and shaming, which doesn’t help improvement, to really specific and actionable data.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson said, too, that the new rankings “drill down” better. Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, added that there are “flaws in school grading.” And Ashley Anderson, a parent and teacher at Washington Elementary School, say the old system is “a bygone tool.”

from The Salt Lake Tribune http://bit.ly/2SnsPK4
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