A-F GRADING SYSTEM GETS “F” FROM DEMOCRATS

System emblazons ‘Scarlet Letter’ on public schools

AUGUSTA – Democrats on the state’s education committee are deeply concerned over the LePage administration’s new school “reform” measure that assigns a letter grade of “A” through “F” to Maine’s public schools.

“This is a plan out of left field. Grades like these are shaming and will embarrass schools and students rather than help them,” said Senator Rebecca Millett (D-Cape Elizabeth) who serves as the Senate Chair of the Education Committee. “To date, the Department of Education has only provided raw data to struggling districts and expects them to devise and deploy improvement efforts with no additional funds. If this administration is truly interested in helping underperforming schools, they would provide the funds and the data. They would support the efforts of our public school teachers and school principals.”

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen presented the “A” through “F” plan only one day after handing out a list of “pet project” funding requests to the committee, including a line item that creates the Office of School Accountability. According to Bowen’s handout, $3 million is allocated toward the state’s effort of “taking over failing schools.”

Bowen said the goal of the “A” through “F” plan was to provide an incentive for schools to want to improve, but couldn’t address how funds could target districts who don’t improve their performance.

“I’m completely and unalterably opposed to this initiative,” said Representative Bruce MacDonald, (D-Boothbay), House chair of the committee.  “It could give the false sense that all is well at a school or it could wrongly shame a struggling but improving school.”

When asked what assessments the Department would use to assign letter grades, Bowen said that test scores would be relied upon for evaluating school districts.

MacDonald added, “The proposal relies on inadequate measures of too few factors and these ‘grades’ cannot provide an accurate picture of what is taking place at a school.”

Test scores are not reliable, and incentivize poor behavior, like cheating on tests, as recently seen in Georgia, where 35 educators and administrators were indicted last month by a Grand Jury for a cheating scandal.

“Issuing letter grades for schools is akin to brandishing them a ‘scarlet letter’ or posting every student’s grade on the door of the schoolhouse,” said Senator Chris Johnson (D-Somerville) who serves on the Education committee. “We also don’t know what effect these school letter grades would have on students applying to colleges. Do the Valedictorians of F-schools carry that scarlet letter with them when applying to colleges?”

Last year, Governor LePage claimed that out of state schools looked down on Maine students, and that Maine students attending William & Mary had to take a special test. This was later proved to be false.

Johnson added, “A through F not only stigmatizes schools and students, it impacts entire communities. I’m afraid that we will see property values in an entire community plummet if a school gets an F.”

The Commissioner is expected to return to the education committee in the coming weeks with more details on the grading model.

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