Those A-thru-F grades for schools

by David Safier

One of the AZ Republicans' educational reforms this year is to give each school and district an A-through-F grade, just like students get on their report cards.

Apparently, it's a wonderful idea because:

1. It won't cost any money
2. Florida does it, so it has to be a good idea.

I read SB1286. It didn't take long, since it's simply a revision of existing legislation which creates an academic achievement profile for each state school. Right now, schools are designated Excelling, High Performing, Performing, Underperforming or Failing. Replace each of those designations with a letter grade and Bingo! School reform! See how easy that is?

Now, let's pull aside the curtain and take a peek at what the change does. If you want to demonize schools, this is a great way to do it, since the letter grades give a more negative view of schools which are now considered to be doing a reasonable job educating their students than the current terms. Take a look.

1. "Excelling" becomes "A." That's a good equivalent.
2. "High Performing" becomes "B." To my ear, "High Performing" sounds like an "A-," or at least a "B+." When I hear "B," I think, "Only a B? That's not so good. You should really earn an "A."
3. "Performing" becomes "C." Now there's a real demotion. I would say "Performing" sounds like a "B" or "B-." Few people consider a "C" an adequate grade. Listen to the difference between these 2 sentences: "Your school is performing," and "Your school gets a "C." That's a serious demotion.
4. "Underperforming" becomes "D." Those are pretty close equivalents.
5. "Failing" becomes "F." Those are identical.

In the new designations, schools which are doing reasonably well sound like they're doing less well. Will this inspire them to work harder and do better? I guess that's possible. But given the makeup of our legislature, it will more likely give the education bashers another weapon to use for their public-school-defunding, voucher-creating agenda.

The only other change in the legislation is that school districts will get a grade as well as schools.