Donald Burdick: Grading system doesn’t show growth

Regarding the Oct. 28 Point of View “When F stands for fiercely proud”: Thanks, Lindsey Kennedy, for exposing the problems with the grading system the General Assembly has imposed on North Carolina schools and acknowledging the good work being done by the teachers at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham.

I know that school well, having served there as a volunteer in math for the last 12 and a half years The Lakewood teachers, indeed, do a fabulous job, and the evidence for that is provided by the “expected growth” result.

The expected growth statistic takes into account where a student is at the start of the school year, measures the progress made during the year and compares that progress to the progress made by students at other places with similar starting values. In other words, it’s an apples-to-apples comparison based on what is actually happening in the schools.

The grading formula adopted by the General Assembly greatly undervalues expected growth and overvalues end-of-year status. It’s as if a man born poor who works hard to provide a comfortable life for his family is considered a failure because he leaves a smaller estate than the man down the street who was born into wealth.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Donald Burdick: Grading system doesn’t show growth."