Administrators: Grading System Flawed, Don't Pay Attention To State Report Cards

Oklahoma handed out some Fs to its public schools, 200 schools got failing report cards Wednesday, that's up 20 percent from last year. Almost 50 of those 200 failing schools are in Tulsa.

There was good news in the state's report as one-third of Oklahoma schools improved on last year's scores.

Districts are still going through the report cards, and some are finding big surprises, as some schools' scores took a dive.

9/17/2014 Related Story: Tulsa Public Schools Releases State's A-F Report For The District

The scores were published online around 7:30 Wednesday night.

School administrators said the grading system is so flawed that they don't pay much attention to the report cards.

State Department Of Education A-F Report Cards

Jenks Public Schools Spokesperson Bonnie Rogers said the school report cards, are not good indicators of what's actually happening in the classroom.

"We're trying to take so many parts of what makes a good school and boil it down to one grade,” Rogers said.

Jenks High School got an A+ last year, but this year, the school that just gave all their students Chromebooks, was knocked down a grade letter.

"It's hard to think that Jenks High School was an A+ quality school last year and is a B+ quality school this year,” said Rogers.

A minor change in the school's graduation or attendance rates could've caused Jenks to drop that letter grade, but some schools - like Bixby's Central Intermediate - saw improved scores.

Elementary Curriculum Director Sherri McMillan said ever since Bixby added 30 minutes to the school day, and teachers made more time to meet, district schools have kept getting better.

"We have time set aside each day for students to get extra help and to also get acceleration in subjects,” McMillan said. "Six of our school sites made in the A range, and then we had one school site that made a B."

There are more schools upset with their scores, than pleased.

Union Public Schools released a statement saying, "The validity and reliability of these school grades are of great concern to us all."

Broken Arrow Public Schools released a statement saying, "While we are disappointed in the scores, we know they are not reflective of the quality of education our students receive....The state's accountability system is flawed, ill-executed and an inaccurate measurement of school performance."

We also contacted Owasso and Sand Springs. Both districts said their schools stayed about the same, but again, they don't weigh a lot off these report cards.

Some schools that moved down include:

• Owasso HS down from A to B+
• Jenks HS down from A+ to B+
• Broken Arrow HS down from A+ to B+
• Sand Springs Northwoods Fine Arts Academy down from C to F
• Sand Springs 9th Grade Center down from A+ to B+
• Keystone Public Schools down from C to D
• Tulsa Lighthouse Academy down from B to C
• Tulsa Lee Elementary down from B+ to D
• Tulsa Salk Elementary down from B- to C-
• Tulsa Grissom Elementary down from A- to C+
• Tulsa Monroe MS down from D to F
• Tulsa Hale HS down from D- to F
• Tulsa McClain HS down from C- to D
• Tulsa Memorial HS down from B- to C+
• Tulsa Rogers HS down from B to C+
• Tulsa Webster HS down from B- to D+
• Union Briarglen ES down from D+ to F
• Union Boevers ES down from C- to F
• Union Clark ES down from D- to F
• Muskogee HS down from B- to C
• Claremore HS down from A- to B+
• Bartlesville Richard Kane ES down from A- to C+
• Sapulpa JH down from B to C-
• Olive HS down from C- to F
• Drumright MS down from C+ to F
• Briggs Schools down from C to F
• Foyil JH down from C+ to F
• Copan HS down from A to B-
• Caney Valley JS down from A to B-
• Porter HS down from A to B

Schools that moved up include:

• Muskogee Harris-Jobe ES up from F to D
• Tulsa KIPP up from F to D
• Deborah Brown up from B- to A+
• Kiefer MS up from D+ to B
• Drumright ES up from D to B-
• Hulbert JH up from F to C
• Coweta Northwest ES up from D to B-