In the last weeks of 2018, the South Carolina Department of Education released report cards for the public schools as required by state and federal law. These grades are meant to reflect how the school is performing and areas of improvement. These report cards in theory are a tool to see how schools are doing with meeting grade level expectations. It provides a direction on areas that need improvement and a mechanism to provide definable progress.
With limited knowledge about how these grades are calculated, the usefulness or validity of the grading system is unclear. It does impact the perception of the school and parents’ desire to enroll their children in that school. It also leaves me to wonder what tools are available to grade how the local, state, and federal governments are doing in their efforts to support the schools. The schools that are being graded do not all have access to same funding, services available, or government support. Therefore in my opinion, the responsibility and grade do not wholly lie with the school.
How can schools be equally judged if the level of support from governing bodies is not equivalent? The standard has been set to provide feedback on the effectiveness of schools but they are just a part of the whole picture. There is little public information on what governments are doing to support education or the policies they set. It seems to me that a report card completed by the schools, districts, and states would be a good place to start. Not only would it provide important feedback information to governments on where support was needed, whether the changes are financial or changes in policy. It would also provide voters with information on how their officials are doing in supporting the schools, giving context to school’s grade and information to the constituents.
Now that these school grades are posted, I am left to wonder, are the government agencies making the grade for our schools?