SALT LAKE CITY — The House Education Committee gave a favorable recommendation Monday to legislation that would eliminate letter grades on the state school report card.
HB198, sponsored by Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights, would do away with school grades and use the state's new report card dashboard moving forward.
The latest report card has new indicators such as how well high schools prepare students for college or other postsecondary education; progress of English language learners; and academic growth of a school’s lowest-performing students.
Instead of grades, schools are rated as exemplary, commendable, typical, developing or those with critical needs.
For this year only, the awarding of letter grades was suspended as Utah public schools transitioned to new statewide assessments.
Questar Assessment Inc. is the state's new testing provider for grades three through eight. Formerly, the state used the Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence or SAGE.
High school SAGE assessments have been replaced with ACT brand tests, which officials say should result in higher rates of participation because more students will care about the results.
Some lawmakers on the committee said using descriptors as opposed to letter grades was "semantics."
But others, such as Utah Education Association President Heidi Matthews, said giving letter grades to schools was the stuff of "blaming and shaming."
"An 'F' says you're failing," she said, while a school described as having "critical needs" will help ensure a school gets the resources and personnel to address those critical needs.
Poulson said she believes the dashboard system is "a huge improvement" because it has more indicators that "make us look deeper at the details."
She likes it, too, because it acknowledges school's initiatives and efforts to improve the student achievement.
SB198 moves to House for its consideration.