(Carolina Journal) – First changes to how public schools earn their grades, shifting from broad criticism of the current A-F grading rubric toward specific steps on how to remake it, has been achieved by a school accountability task force in North Carolina.
The idea of replacing the state’s current “percent proficient” measure with a weighted “proficiency index” was floated in a meeting of the State Board of Education Task Force on Accountability for Public Schools. The task force also voiced support for adding a five-year graduation rate alongside the existing four-year rate.
Although no formal votes were taken, both ideas are the first choices the task force has agreed on since it began meeting in February. Any changes to the current evaluation regime – including a revamp of the A-F grading system – would need to come through the General Assembly.
The grading approach is set in state law.
Under the current system, two schools with the same proficiency rate are treated as identical. A proficiency index would change that, operating on a sliding scale that awards students more points for scoring at higher achievement levels, rather than counting each student as simply proficient or not.
“If all of the students in one school were a level three and all of the students in another school were a level four, those schools would look different with that index,” said Curtis Sonneman, director of the Office of Accountability and Testing at the Department of Public Instruction.
The change opened a larger debate over whether schools should also get credit for moving students who remain below grade level.
Members also agreed to add a five-year graduation rate. It would be weighted less heavily than the four-year, but a former high school principal on the task force warned against the change creating the wrong incentive.
The task force is trying to land on recommendations through consensus rather than vote taking. Members plan to begin writing recommendations in December and present a model to the State Board in May, with an anticipated vote in June 2027 and possible statewide rollout in October 2027.
The task force next meets Aug. 20.
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