SALT LAKE CITY — With the rise in SAGE scores, more schools earned A and B grades this year with Utah's school grading system, and most of last year's schools with failing grades have improved by a letter grade or more.

It's the second year Utah's accountability reports have been based on the statewide assessment known as SAGE, and it's the first time educators hope to be able to make an "apples-to-apples" comparison of the data for most schools.

So far, they say the results show genuine academic growth for Utah's students.

Out of 738 elementary schools this year, 109 earned an A, 358 got a B, 213 got a C, 45 got a D and 13 got an F. About 64 percent of schools got either an A or a B, compared to 59 percent last year, and 7 percent got a D or an F, compared to 9 percent last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Utah State Office of Education.

Of Utah's 133 high schools, 14 received an A, 61 earned a B, 42 got a C, six got a D and 10 got an F. About 59 percent of high schools got either an A or a B, up from 50 percent last year, and 9 percent got a D or an F, down from almost 20 percent last year.

Education leaders say they're pleased with the better grades, but they hope parents and policymakers will go beyond the grades to understand what goes on in their local school.

"I think it's a great thing that we have increases," said Jo Ellen Shaeffer, director of assessment and accountability at the Utah State Office of Education. "There's lots of things that make up an academic picture for a student, so by labeling with a single grade, I think you're missing some of the nuances and also some of the ability to drive school improvement.

"Our idea is that accountability is only as useful as how it can help a school improve what they're doing," she said.

PACE report cards were also released, showing additional details about schools and the performance of students in third, sixth and high school grades. Both PACE and school grades contain accountability data reported to the U.S. Department of Education.

School grading

Utah's school grading system was established by the Legislature in 2011, and the first grades were released for the 2012-13 school year. Since then, the system has changed significantly, partly due to the student assessment of growth and excellence, or SAGE, taking the place of the criterion reference test as Utah's year-end student assessment.

Each school's grade is based on a score that accounts for student achievement and academic growth. In addition, high schools are graded on their graduation rates and the percentage of students who meet all four college- and career-ready benchmarks on the ACT.

Educators attribute the improvement in this year's grades to growth in SAGE, which showed higher proficiency rates statewide in English, math and science for most schools across the state.

This was especially apparent in the Granite and Jordan school districts, which doubled the number of their schools that earned A's.

Granite District spokesman Ben Horsley said the district in the past year has pushed for stronger fidelity to core standards, better interventions for struggling students and professional learning communities, where teachers meet to coordinate and improve instruction.

"The schools that have improved or where we continue to see improvement are the ones who are really doing their (professional learning communities) at a high level," Horsley said. "Progress is progress. While we don't ascribe the school grade as the end-all-be-all for quality education in our schools, it is an indicator of a few things. And we certainly want to be doing well in those things."

And it's not just the A schools that are getting praise from district leaders.

Last year, Cyprus High School was near the bottom of the ladder in student performance. The school had SAGE scores less than half of the state average — including a math proficiency rate of 4.8 percent — and a growth score of 163 out of 300. Cyprus got an F that year.

The school enrolls roughly 1,800 students, 38 percent of whom are a racial or ethnic minority, 11 percent are English language learners, 51 percent come from low socioeconomic homes, 12 percent have disabilities and 12 percent are chronically absent, according to the school's 2015 PACE report.

But in one year, the school multiplied its proficiency rates on SAGE, with now almost 26 percent of students meeting the benchmark in math. With the improved proficiency and rapid growth, Cyprus this year earned a C.

"That's a big jump. It's really hard to go that far in one year," Horsley said. "School teams really have to come together to get those kind of results."

Principal Robert McDaniel said he's pleased with the change and the progress teachers at Cyprus have accomplished in the past year. But McDaniel echoed the controversy behind the school grading system, that it takes more than one letter to spell out each school's story of improvement.

"We're very excited for the hard work of the staff here (to) get out of the stigma of being considered to be a failing school, because even before, I don't think an F was indicative of what kind of a school Cyprus is," McDaniel said. "I think that with all grading systems, there's still a lot of subjectivity to it, and I don't know that it adequately lets people know what a school offers on both ends, whether you score high or low."

At the same time, he said, accountability reports such as the school grades give educators a chance to review their practices and make needed improvements.

"It will absolutely change practices at my school, because if that's what we're going to be judged on, then I've got to really understand the details of it. … There's actually some pretty valuable information in it," he said. "Schools are more proactive in making sure that there's better instruction going on."

PACE digs deeper

PACE, a more widely accepted accountability system now in its second year, was developed as part of the governor's Prosperity 2020 initiative, which ultimately seeks to have 66 percent of Utah's workforce with a college education by 2020.

The PACE report card lists proficiency and growth scores, as well as high school graduation rates and the percentage of high schoolers who get a composite score of 18 or better on the ACT.

But PACE also includes deeper trends, including the percentage of ethnic minority students, English language learners, low socioeconomic students, disabled students, chronically absent students and overall enrollment. Each school's scores are compared side-by-side with district and state averages.

This year, almost 78 percent of third-graders statewide were reading on grade level through the DIBELS reading test, and 51 percent scored proficiently in math on SAGE. About 46 percent of sixth-graders were proficient in English language arts, and 39 percent of them were proficient in math. Each metric increased from last year.

High school graduation rates improved from 81.4 percent to 83.1 percent, but the percentage of students who reached a composite ACT score of 18 dropped slightly from 72.9 percent to 72.4 percent.

PACE includes state goals of having 90 percent of students proficient in reading and math, a 90 percent high school graduation rate, and 80 percent of high schoolers enrolling in college after they graduate.

Tami Pyfer, education adviser to Gov. Gary Herbert, said several elements of the report card are tied to circumstances for students outside the classroom. Chronic absenteeism, for example, makes a student seven times more likely to drop out of high school, according to a University of Utah study.

"We're presenting the measures and the scores, but we're providing a lot more context around that so a principal can make some decisions," Pyfer said. "The PACE report card gives you a more comprehensive look at that school so that parents really can make informed decisions, and that administrators and community councils and teachers can have more information on how to improve student outcomes."

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What's next?

The state Legislature this year passed a bill that requires Utah's lowest performing schools in the school grading system to undergo an academic turnaround effort. The new law requires schools that fall in the lowest 3 percent to create a school turnaround committee, which will propose a plan to the State School Board on how the school will improve student performance.

If those schools improve by a full letter grade within a year, they will receive $100 per tested student and $1,000 per teacher in added school funding. That amount multiplies for each additional letter grade, up to $500 per student and $5,000 per teacher.

The program was adopted by the State School Board last month.

Utah's performance on SAGE will also be used for federal accountability measures, including Title I funding. But an increasing number of parents who opt their children out of state testing poses unprecedented questions for Utah's education system, as federal policies and funding require a testing participation rate of 95 percent or greater.

In this year's SAGE test, parental opt-outs increased to 2.5 percent for school districts, up from about 1.5 percent last year. With charter schools, this year's opt-out rate increased to almost 10 percent, up from about 7 percent the year before.

Not only is it unclear what the opt-outs will mean for Utah schools, but it also detracts from the purpose of state accountability reports — to give a true snapshot of overall student performance, Shaeffer said.

"For school grading, just by lowering the 'n' size, it doesn't actually give you a true picture of what's happening at the school," she said. "If you only have 30 percent of kids tested, you don't really know what's happening for the rest of those students."

Pyfer said parents should consider the information in the school grades and the PACE report card, but communicating with teachers and school leaders can lead to a better understanding of how their student fits into a school's overall performance.

"They need to remember that their child and their child's school is more than just the sum of some standardized assessments, and they need to be involved," she said. "If they have questions about what's happening at school, visit the school, visit the principal, go over these assessment results with a teacher or with an administrator, and find out really what is it that school is excelling at (and) what are the challenges."

Contributing: Marjorie Cortez

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