Horne doesn’t disagree with the new audit. It found 92% of high schools were awarded A or B letter grades, but some “did not appear to meet the established criteria for these grades.”
In fact, one school got an A while only 9.6% of students were proficient in math. Another A-rated school only reported 8.6% of students were proficient in English.
“Parents would say, ‘How did they get an A rating when they have low proficiency?’ So that all has to be reformed,” Horne said.
Growth is weighted heavily, which partially explains that. Horne says they are working to reform the system in the next year or two, potentially creating two separate grades, with one for growth and one for proficiency.
“We need to improve the system so that there’s a limit no matter how much you improve, if the proficiency is low, you shouldn’t be able to get an A but you should be able to get a B,” Horne said.