The North Carolina legislature is discussing a bill that would lower the standards for public schools, allowing the schools to be judged by a less stringent standard.
House Bill 145 states:
The State Board of Education shall calculate the overall school performance score by adding the school achievement score, as provided in subsection (b) of this section, and the school growth score, as determined using EVAAS as provided in subsection (c) of this section, earned by a school. The school achievement score shall account for eighty percent (80%), and the school growth score shall account for twenty percent of the total sum. For all schools, the total school performance score shall be converted to a 100-point scale and used to determine an overall school performance grade. The overall school performance grade shall be based on the following scale and shall not be modified to add any other designation related to other performance measures such as a “plus” or “minus”:
Then the bill outlines the new parameters:
A school performance score of at least 90 85 is equivalent to an overall school performance grade of A.
A school performance score of at least 80 70 is equivalent to an overall school performance grade of B.
A school performance score of at least 70 55 is equivalent to an overall school performance grade of C.
A school performance score of at least 60 40 is equivalent to an overall school performance grade of D.
A school performance score of less than 60 points 40 is equivalent to an overall school performance grade of F.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper stated, “Too often I see teachers working second jobs to make ends meet. Kids who missed out on early childhood education and pre-K. Trailers and crowded classrooms. If we want our educators to teach well, we need to treat them well.”
According to Schooldigger.com, the top ten elementary schools in the 2017-18 school year based on test scores were Magellan Charter, Weddington Elementary, Davis Drive Elementary, Providence Spring Elementary, Beaver Dam Elementary, Riverbend Elementary, Wrightville Beach Elementary, Ogden Elementary, Rea View Elementary, and Mills Park Elementary. Schooldigger.com culled data gleaned from the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction.
In July 2018, Forbes reported that the personal finance site WalletHub determined which states had the top ranked school systems from K-12. Massachusetts ranked No. 1, followed by New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Virginia. North Carolina ranked 32nd, behind Michigan and ahead of California.
U.S. News & World Report did rankings of schools by state based on the 2016 census; it found Massachusetts at the top, followed by New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and Connecticut; North Carolina was ranked 23rd. Ranked at the bottom, from 46th to 50th, were Alaska, Mississippi, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. U.S. News & World Report stated, “In order to have a full picture of any state’s success in graduating students from public high school, a longitudinal look at a graduating class, starting with students who enter the ninth grade and counting how many graduate from the 12th grade, is necessary.”