Senators examine A-F report card for public schools

OKLAHOMA CITY – Could the state’s evaluation system for ranking the performance of public schools be improved? That was the topic of an interim study held Monday in the Senate Education Committee, requested by former educator, Sen. Jo Anna Dossett. Many of the presenters touched on the inclusion of chronic absenteeism as one of the factors determining a school’s A-F grade.

“I remember my first year as a teacher, and my school being given a letter grade of ‘C.’ I thought that grade did not fairly or accurately represent the quality of teaching I knew was happening in our school,” said Dossett, D-Tulsa. “Based on my own experience in the classroom, as a mother, and now, as a legislator, I know others in the Capitol and throughout Oklahoma are asking questions about the A-F system, especially the impact of factoring in chronic absenteeism, something beyond a school’s ability to control. This study was an opportunity to explore those assessments and look at what other states are doing.”

Under the federal Every Child Succeeds Act, states are required to include four specific indicators for their accountability systems, with the fifth category left to individual states. Oklahoma chose chronic absenteeism. Senate Bill 531, which was approved by the Senate last session, would have replaced chronic absenteeism with a different assessment. The House did not hear the bill, though it could still be considered in the 2024 session.

During the study, members heard other states are moving away from A-F systems altogether and adopting alternative assessment systems. Dr. Jeanene Barnett is the education policy and research analyst for the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration (CCOSA). She presented information on three states who have moved away from A-F to other metrics, including New Mexico, Utah and Michigan, specifically outlining the reasons that Michigan is moving to a different assessment system.

“In their supporting documents for moving away from the A-F system in House Bill 4166 this past year, they contended that the A-F system offers an incomplete and misleading picture of school performance, and supporters of the bill echoed these concerns, arguing that the A-F system tends to be a measure of which schools and districts serve impoverished students than a meaningful metric to evaluate schools’ quality,” Barnett said.

There was also testimony on the use of absenteeism in grading Oklahoma schools. Dr. Delia Kimbrel, head of research and data strategy for Impact Tulsa, said nationwide school attendance has declined since the pandemic, with students of color, those on an individual education plan (IEP), and those living in poverty most vulnerable to attendance challenges, and pointed to other factors, including homelessness and living in high-crime areas.

“From what we heard, states across the country are reexamining how they assess their schools and whether the systems they are using can unfairly stigmatize schools because of metrics impacted by socio-economic factors within their districts,” Dossett said.  “I appreciate the Education Committee chair and vice chair, Senator Adam Pugh and Senator Ally Seifried, for hearing this study, and all our participants who shared their expertise. I think there’s an appetite to consider how we can improve our evaluation system in Oklahoma. It’s something we need to continue to pursue in the coming session.”

-END-

For more information, contact: 
Sen. Dossett: (405) 521-5624 or JoAnna.Dossett@oksenate.gov