Sen. Sharp comments on State Ed. Dept. decision to exclude writing scores from A-F

Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee, issued the following statement after state Superintendent Janet Barresi announced the 5th- and 8th-grade writing scores would be excluded from the calculation for the A-F report cards for public schools this year.  The decision arose from concerns about the writing test scores from testing vendor CTB-McGraw Hill.

“I want to thank the State Department of Education for listening to the concerns raised by educators in my district and across the state. 

I had the opportunity to meet with Joel Robinson, the Chief of Staff for OSDE, at Dale schools to discuss problems with the grading of this test.  Dale Superintendent Charles Dickson talked about his concerns with the test, including problems with the instructions given to students and the arbitrary grades that were given after the test was taken.  Allison Brown, the Curriculum Director for Shawnee Public Schools, was also at the meeting and shared similar concerns about the test. 

If those scores had been included in the A-F calculations, it would have had a negative and inaccurate impact on our schools’ grades.”