By Sarrah Peters/News Editor
The Alabama Department of Education recently released its Alabama State Report Card for 2017 – 2018. The State Report Card assigns letter grades for each school system and each individual school. The report analyzes federal and state data in several areas, including but not limited to academic achievement, academic growth, graduation rates, college and career ready data, chronic absenteeism and enrollment by student subgroup. However, while this information provides information about areas of improvement, the scores may not reflect all aspects of a school.
“The 2018 State Accountability report tells us something valuable about a school or school system, but it does not tell us everything about that school or system,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey. “Based primarily on a particular assessment, it is a snapshot in time. When stacked together year after year, similar to snapshots of your family, these pictures of school academic performance can certainly can be used to monitor academic progress and growth. But when we describe our children, we use more than snapshots; we talk about their personalities, struggles, challenges, aspirations, successes.”
The state’s score improved rising from a score of 79 or C last year to an 80 or B this year.
“Overall, we are pleased with the academic growth that we see across the state,” said Mackey. “It is a testament to the dedication of our teachers, principals, and all those who support their work that student performance continues to rise. As state superintendent, I am grateful for these hardworking individuals in our local schools who improve the trajectory of children’s lives every day. We believe that our best days and highest levels of achievement lie ahead of us, not behind, and we look forward to working with our state policymakers and lawmakers in 2019 to make sure that we are providing ever better resources and supports for our schools.”
Reflecting the statewide improvements, both Attalla City Schools and Gadsden City Schools earned higher scores this year, with some moving up letter grades.
Gadsden City School remained at a C but rose two points from 73 to 75. Several schools raised their scores from last year. Mitchell Elementary School raised its score one point, from an 84 to an 85, and remains at a B. Floyd Elementary School raised its score three points, from a 71 to a 74, and remains at a C. Donehoo Elementary School rose 10 points from a 73 to an 83, moving from a C score to a B. Walnut Park Elementary School rose from a D to a C, rising 11 points, from 64 to 75. Thompson Elementary School rose 13 points, from a failing 58 to a 71, C. Litchfield Middle School rose seven points, from a 63, D to a 70, C. Sansom Middle School rose eight points from a 74, C to an 82, B. Gadsden City High School also improved eight points, rising from a 67, D to a 75, C.
Some Gadsden City Schools’ scores fell, but none fell drastically. Adams Elementary School moved from a D to an F, but the score fell only one point from a 60 to a 59. W. E. Striplin Elementary School also fell one point, from a 67 to a 66, which remains at a D score. Eura Brown Elementary School fell six points, but remains at an A score, dropping from a 98 to a 92.
Gadsden Middle School fell two points, from a 75 to a 73, remaining at a C.
Attalla City School System went up nine points from a 71, C to an 80, B. Etowah Middle School’s score rose one point from a 70 to a 71, remaining at a C. Etowah High School rose two points, moving from a 69, D to a 71, C. Attalla Elementary School showed the most significant improvement, rising 15 points from a 72, C to an 87, B.
Etowah County School System fell two points from an 81, B to 79, C. Carlisle Elementary School fell seven points, going from a 78 to a 71, but remaining at a C. Duck Springs Elementary remained at an 84, B. Gaston High School raised its score three points going from an 80 to an 83 and remaining at a B. Glencoe Elementary School’s score fell three points from 87 to 84, remaining at a B. Glencoe Middle School fell six points, moving from an 81, B to a 75, C. Glencoe High School rose one point from 80 to 81, remaining at a B. Hokes Bluff Elementary School rose two points from 72 to 74, remaining a C. Hokes Bluff Middle School fell two points from 72 to 70, remaining at a C. Hokes Bluff High School stayed steady with a 78, C. Ivalee Elementary School fell six points from a 91, A to an 85, B. John S. Jones Elementary School fell one point from 92 to 91, remaining at an A. Highland Elementary School fell 12 points, going from an 83, B to a 71, C. Rainbow Middle School rose one point from a 79 to an 80, moving from a C to a B. Sardis Middle School rose three points from a 70 to a 73, remaining at a C. Sardis High School rose four points from a 79, C to 83, B. Southside Elementary School remained at an 83, B. Southside High School rose four points from a 79, C to an 83, B. West End Elementary School fell eight points from 78 to 70, remaining at a C. West End High School fell one point from a 70, C to a 69, D. Whitesboro Elementary School fell three points from 86 to 83, remaining at a B.