Alva Review-Courier -

Oklahoma has recently introduced a new and improved grading system for schools. This is due to federal law mandating a change to Oklahoma’s current A-F report card system.

This new system was introduced by Joy Hofmeister and finally passed through the state school board in December. It will take into account more than just what the student does in the classroom. Things such as skin color, attendance, and many other things will be taken into consideration when it comes to assigning grades.

“I’m never opposed to accountability. Up until this year, this report card was statistically inept and invalid, but this year it is valid. Those in charge of creating this report card are on the right track, but it is not where it needs to be yet,” says Alva High School Principal Les Potter.

The overall responses to this new system have been mixed.

While some believe that this new system will be of benefit to students, others have claimed that it has some racist aspects. Hispanic, African-American and Native American students are all weighted differently under the new formula, according to KFOR.

“This report card builds in safeguards for different races and unfairly pulls them out of the regular demographic,” said Potter.

This new system has the potential to show a false representation of how students are actually doing in schools. Although their grades may appear to be improving, in some cases it may be strictly due to the lower expectations. This new report card also takes into account that low-income students often start at a disadvantage; however, the expectations for these students will remain the same, according to KFOR.

“Under federal law, we have to identify groups that have been historically under performing,” says Phil Bacharach.

Although this may be true, some believe there is a more efficient way to do so, and that this new system is not the way.

Even with the racist claims pertaining to this report card formula, there are still those who believe in this system.

“I am in favor of an assessment system that holds us accountable, a system that requires ownership of our academic achievements, both good and bad,” said El Reno Superintendent Craig McVay in the Oklahoma Gazette.

The current grading system could harm the reputation of schools solely based on the letters a child received on their report card. Those in favor of the new and improved report card believe that the current system is not reliable, nor is it valid.

This new system, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, is more reliable, valid and meaningful. Along with this new system, schools will no longer be evaluated for their success one single time at the end of the year, which, in turn, should result in a more accurate and reliable representation of how a school is actually doing throughout the school year. This new formula is also said to put more emphasis on college and career readiness.

Along with the other changes put in place with this new report card, the report card itself will have a new look. Report cards through the current system are PDF files that show the student’s final grades in each class. The new report cards, which will be accessible through the Department of Education website, will be formatted as an interactive dashboard and allow users to see the breakdown of how a school is performing in several different indicators, the Oklahoma Gazette reports.

The new A-F report card will be put into effect soon.