STERLING — — Colorado School Grades (CSG), an online tool created by a diverse coalition of 18 community organizations, earlier this week released its 2013 rankings of every public school in the state, including Logan County schools.
The rankings, which are available online at http://ColoradoSchoolGrades.com, are intended to help parents, students, educators and community members better understand how their local Colorado schools are performing, a press release from the organization states.
According to the site, RE-1 Valley Schools received the following ratings: Caliche High School - B+, Caliche Jr. High - B, Caliche Elementary School - C, Sterling High School - C, Sterling Middle School - C and Campbell Elementary - D. Ayres Elementary does not have a grade because they did not have 100 percent of the input data that is used to calculate a total score.
While RE-1 agrees with CSG's belief that every child deserves a high-performing school, they have some concerns about the formula the organization uses to rank schools.
RE-1 Superintendent Dr. Jan DeLay points out that CSG uses a grading method that grades on a curve, with only a certain percentage of schools allowed to fall into each grading category.
"The method places at least 50 percent of Colorado schools in the C category each year, regardless of proficiency or improvement," she explained.
According to a press release from CSG, the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Denver's School of Public Affairs developed the formula CSG uses. It uses the same variables and weights as the Colorado Department of Education's School Performance Framework, which includes data such as a school's achievement, academic growth, academic growth gaps, and for high schools, college/career readiness.
The resulting data goes through a grading curve that ranks schools from top to bottom. The top 10 percent of schools receive an A grade (A+, A or A-), the next 25 percent receive a B rating, the next 50 percent a C rating, the next 10 percent a D rating and the bottom five percent an F rating.
CDE's system uses five categories to rate schools: Performance with distinction, performance, improvement, priority improvement and turnaround. Right now, all schools in RE-1 are on performance plans, with the exception of Campbell Elementary, which is on a priority improvement plan.
DeLay points out that the CSG curve "forces both performance and improvement schools into the same grade category."
She also notes that while under CDE's system schools from the 31st to 99th percentile are rated performance and schools above the 99th percentile are rated performance with distinction, the CSG system ranks all schools that are in the 15th to 65th percentile in the C- to C+ range.
Performance is always a concern for RE-1. According to DeLay, the community-based District Accountability and Advisory Committee has been meeting since October to examine current RE-1 performance information to create improvement plans for instruction and improved student learning. Each school building also has a Building Accountability Committee that examines student performance and works with each building to develop plans and strategies to improve student achievement.
Among the changes the district has made this year to try to enhance academic growth for students is increased teacher and principal training in mathematics, reading and writing instruction strategies.
"The emphases is on making sure students make academic progress of at least (one year's growth in) one year, but for some children who are not at grade level, teachers and principals are incorporating more strategies to achieve more than a year's growth in a year's time," DeLay said.
Among those strategies is parent outreach, to ensure that all students attend school regularly.
CSG ratings for other local schools include: Merino Elementary - C, Merino Jr. High - C-, Merino High School - B, Peetz Elementary - B, Peetz Jr. High - C+, Peetz High School - A, Fleming Elementary - C, Fleming Jr. High - B and Fleming High School - B.
To learn more about how districts and schools are performing according to CDE, visit http://cde.state.co.us/schoolview/.
CSG coalition members are A+ Denver, ACE Scholarships, The Adolph Coors Foundation, The Anschutz Foundation, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Children's Campaign, Colorado Succeeds, The Daniels Fund, Donnell-Kay Foundation, Get Smart Schools, Independence Institute, Qualistar Colorado, Together Colorado, Morgridge Family Foundation, Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE), Stand for Children, The Urban League of Metropolitan Denver and Walton Family Foundation.
Contact Journal-Advocate staff writer Callie Jones at 970-526-9286 or email@example.com