In October, the Arizona Department of Education released 2017-2018 school year letter grades for every school in the state based on a combination of AZMerit testing, graduation rates and other statistical factors.
Many schools in the Verde Valley dropped compared to the 2016-2017 school year, with Mingus Union High School dropping from a B to a D due to some failures in its AZMerit testing process
All schools in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District except Cottonwood Middle School went down.
The Clarkdale-Jerome School, in its own one- school district, increased from a C to a B.
But superintendents of both the Cottonwood-Oak Creek and Clarkdale-Jerome school districts appealed their scores from the Arizona Department of Education, arguing that the state evaluation had not adequately included the results of an Algebra 1 class that eighth grade students at the various schools had taken at Mingus Union High School.
“We send eighth-graders up to Mingus to take Algebra 1,” COCSD Superintendent Steve King said. “And at the end ofthat class, just like every other high school student, they’re required to take the end of course test. Every student was required to pass it in order for us to receive those points. When we received the AZMerit scores back from the state, all of our kids had passed. So why didn’t we get these points? We picked up on that, and that was the basis of our appeal.”
As a result of the appeal, Clarkdale- Jerome saw its grade rise all the way to a B after the board reevaluated the school. Mountain View Preparatory was given a B instead of a C — just one grade below the A it got for the 2016-17 school year.
“Once we appealed and corrected the issue with Arizona state Board of Education, the process was really easy,” Clarkdale-Jerome Superintendent Danny Brown said. “They worked well with us. It was just a matter of submitting some paperwork, and that was not an issue.”
“The confusing issue that the state needs to figure out in the future is that we have a number of districts that are like that,” Brown said. “The ADE need to correct that issue with regards to how the schools with students such as us and MVP — how they capture that data and get that data into our label.”
Superintendent King likewise praised the appeal process, but expressed a desire for reform that would make post-grading appeals like this unnecessary.
“Once we got into the process I thought it was fairly reasonable, but what would be more reasonable would be to have the appeals come before public release,” King said. “Why can’t we look at those things before the state makes all this public?”
Both superintendents expressed gratitude that their schools were recognized for academic achievement with the updated grades.
“It’s the success of everybody that’s involved in the education community of Clarkdale-Jerome, from governing board to administration, to teachers, staff, parents and students,” Brown said.
“I am very proud of the staff at Mountain View Preparatory. We have a very passionate and dedicated group of educators at MVP,” MVP Principal Kelli Rhoda wrote in an email. “Our teachers work extremely hard to build relation- ships with all of our students and families. They also go above and beyond to provide a critically-engaging, inquiry-based curriculum for our students. The students at MVP work very hard to meet the high expectations of our educational team.”
“I would like to thank our district office, especially our curriculum coordinator, for being alert and working so hard to process the appeal for our school.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
