Understanding the AZDE letter grades

Arizona ― On Aug. 2, the Arizona Department of Education announced its A-F letter grades for public, charter, and alternative schools throughout the state. Last week’s Silver Belt reported these letter grades, showing some impressive reports such as Las Lomas’ A-grade and Liberty High School’s B-ALT grade. These grades are based on a number of factors which are reported by schools to the Department of Education. These factors are divided into two major components: growth score and composite score.

The factors making up the growth score are the overall academic growth of all students and the academic growth of the lowest performing students. For this score, 100 points are possible. The composite score encompasses academic outcomes, such as the percentage passing AIMS and AIMS A testing, and the percentage of ELL (English Language Learner) students reclassified. For high schools, the graduation rate and the dropout rate are also factored into the composite score. Again, a maximum of 100 points is possible. These two scores are then added together and the grade is based on the following point scale:

140 ― 200 points = A

120 ― 139 points = B

100 ― 119 points = C

0 ― 99 points = D

Alternative Schools follow a separate model. Their grade is based on three components: growth score (SGP + Improvement), accounting for 70-percent of the grade (140 points); academic outcomes (percent passing AIMS and AIMS A), accounting for 30-percent of the grade (60 points); and Improvement (increase in AIMS performance level, ELL reclassification, academic persistence, and graduation rate for high schools), accounting for 9 possible points. This results in 209 points possible. The grades are based on the following scale:

167 ― 200 [sic] points = A

132 ― 166 points = B

97 ― 131 points = C

0 ― 96 points = D

A separate grading of “Small Schools” was added to grade schools having less than 100 students. The grading system for these schools is the same 200-point scale for traditional schools (non-alternative).

The A-F letter grade model for K-2 schools comprises two components: an On-Target Score (the percentage of students at or above Stanford 10 scale score benchmarks in grade 2 that predict proficiency on AIMS in third grade) and academic outcomes (defined as the percentage of grade 2 students at or above 5th stanine* on Stanford 10 tests and the percentage of ELL students reclassified).

Two hundred points are possible and the grades are distributed based on the following scale:

167 ― 200 = A

123 ― 166 = B

79 ― 122 = C

0 ― 78 = D



For the complete article see the 08-15-2012 issue.

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