Pinal districts react to proposed school letter grade system
by Kelly Fisher | Arizona City Independent
After a two-year hiatus in connection with AzMERIT’s launch, the Arizona Board of Education plans to re-implement A through F school letter grades, this time with some new criteria.
“Everyone knew AzMERIT was a much more rigorous test,” Karol Schmidt, executive director of the State Board of Education, said of the break from grading. “(The two-year break) would allow some time for schools to acclimate (to) that test.”
According to data from the state Department of Education, an average of 28.5 percent of Pinal County students passed the AzMERIT test when accounting for all students and all test levels in fiscal year 2016. An average of 48.5 percent fell into the “minimally proficient” performance level while an average of just 6 percent scored in the “highly proficient” performance level.
