School Grade Components and their Relative Impact

School Grades Overview

School grades are a mechanism by which both local and state stakeholders are informed about school efficacy and how school districts are held accountable to expected community and regional goals. Starting with the 2014 school year, Florida school grades are calculated using four focus areas broken up into, at most, eleven total components. More specifically, there are four achievement, four growth, two acceleration, and one graduation component used in the calculation. These components are individually defined as a ratio percentage of students delineated by those who should be included in the component to those who were included. With the exception of graduation, each component is determined by student performance on an assessment or course grade, either by state mandate or industry certification requirement that span grades three through twelve.

Equating Components

The components outlined under this system should then be equated to one another in terms of their contribution towards a school’s grade. However, there is a very real and inherent disparity between them when considering the number of students assigned to each component and the contribution of each component towards that grade.

Start with an idealized elementary school where every grade level (i.e. grades 3 through 5) has the same number of students who are also assigned to their appropriate grade level-component pair. Because English language arts and mathematics are tested at all of the grade levels in this is ideal elementary school, it follows that those subjects would have a corresponding higher proportion of the total student count. Similarly, with science only tested in one grade level, it should have a smaller proportion of that distribution. The expected population distributions are summarized in Table 1 for this this idealized elementary school model, as relative population weights in terms of the school grade.

Table 1. Idealized Elementary School Population Weights by Grade Level-Component Pairs

Grade Level	ELA Ach	ELA LG	ELA LG LQ	Math Ach	Math LG	Math LG LQ	Science Ach
3	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
4	1	1	0.25	1	1	0.25	0
5	1	1	0.25	1	1	0.25	1
Total	3	2	0.5	3	2	0.5	1
Relative %	25.0%	16.7%	4.2%	25.0%	16.7%	4.2%	8.3%

Note: Relative percent = component total / (sum all component totals) × 100

With that same elementary school look at the contribution of each component towards the school grade. In this scenario, grade three only has achievement components for math and English language arts, as there are no available learning gains, except for grade three retentions in the next year. Because each component is artificially equated to have the same contribution as any other component, there is a scaling factor that must be introduced in order to extract the ‘true’ contribution by grade level-component pairings. Here, science achievement has more weight towards a school’s grade because it only takes one grade level of students into account yet it contributes as ‘equally’ as the mathematics achievement component that aggregates three grade levels of students. These results are summarized in Table 2 for this scenario, as relative grade-component weights for school grade.

Table 2. Idealized Elementary School Grade level-Component Pair Weights

Grade Level	ELA Ach	ELA LG	ELA LG LQ	Math Ach	Math LG	Math LG LQ	Science Ach
3	0.067	-	-	0.067	-	-	-
4	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	-
5	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067	0.067
Total	0.200	0.133	0.133	0.200	0.133	0.133	0.067
Unity Scalar	5.0	7.5	7.5	5.0	7.5	7.5	15.0
Relative %	9.1%	13.6%	13.6	9.1%	13.5^	13.6%	27.3

Note: 0.067 = ¹⁄₁₅ of total grade level-component pairs for elementary school. For comparison, grade level-component pair fractions for middle school is ¹⁄₂₁* and ~¹⁄₁₆* for high school. Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry are not included as separate components because they are aggregated under the mathematics heading, though population counts would change.

Taking both of these results into focus, it is clear there are disparities in school grade calculation. In our idealized elementary school, science achievement is approximately 8% of the school’s population weighting but accounts for over 27% of the school grade component weighting. A similar, yet slightly diminished pattern exists for the lowest quartile students as well. A school that is neglecting science and lowest quartile students suffers much more on school grading than a school with appropriate focus, resolve, and resources to ensure student success in those areas. The relative weighing models for both scenarios are summarized in Tables 3a and 3b.

Table 3a. Side by Side Comparison of Relative Weights, Idealized Elementary School

Component	Population Weight	Component Weight	Return
ELA	25.0	9.1	0.364
ELA LG	16.7	13.6	0.814
ELA LG LQ	4.2	13.6	3.238
Math	25.0	9.1	0.364
Math LG	16.7	13.6	0.814
Math LG LQ	4.2	13.6	3.238
Science Ach	8.3	27.3	3.289
Total	100.0	100.0	Unity

Note: “Return” is a comparative metric only and not a function of input to output.

How do these areas influence the school grade for non-idealized schools, i.e. all schools in Florida for all school types? This is answered by removing the science or the social studies achievement component and recalculating the grade as a percentage of points earned to total possible points. The change in school grade is then used as a metric to show the impact of those components.

Table 3b. Side by Side Comparison of Relative Weights, Idealized Middle School

Component	Population Weight	Component Weight	Return
ELA	19.4	8.3	0.431
ELA LG	19.4	8.3	0.431
ELA LG LQ	4.8	8.3	1.722
Math	19.4	8.3	0.431
Math LG	19.4	8.3	0.431
Math LG LQ	4.8	8.3	1.722
Science Ach	6.5	25.0	3.875
Soc. S. Ach	6.5	25.0	3.875
Total	100.0	100.0	Unity

NOTE: Return on Investment is a comparative metric only and not a function of input to output. Idealized high schools have an unknown element representing the number of math components, which could range from zero to five.

What if…

Using this method, the science component positively impacts 175 (5.6%) and negatively impacts 159 (4.8%) of the schools across Florida in 2016. Similarly, the social studies component positively impacts 4 (<3%) and negatively impacts 236 (16.9%) the schools. With both components removed, a larger change occurs. Here 2,501 (76.0%) schools are positively impacted with no school negatively impacted. The complete influence of science is summarized in Table 4, social studies in Table 5, and removing both science and social studies components is shown in Table 6; here a negative is a decrease in school grade while a positive is an increase.

Table 4. Change in School Grade by Removing Science Components

2016 Grade	-2 Change	-1 Change	No Change	+1 Change	+2 Change	Total
A	0	56	696	0	0	752
B	0	76	653	32	0	761
C	0	22	1,200	61	0	1,283
D	5	0	307	73	0	385
F	0	0	90	0	19	109
Total	5	154	2,946	166	19	3,290

Source: FLDOE 2016 School Grade Results Note: Only includes schools that teach Grade 5 Science, Grade 8 Science, or Biology.

Table 5. Change in School Grade by Removing Social Studies Components

2016 Grade	-2 Change	-1 Change	No Change	+1 Change	+2 Change	Total
A	0	76	275	0	0	351
B	0	108	224	0	0	332
C	0	46	513	2	0	561
D	6	0	121	2	0	129
F	0	0	21	0	0	21
Total	6	230	1,154	4	0	1,394

Source: FLDOE 2016 School Grade Results Note: Only schools that teach Civics and/or US History are included.

Table 6. Change in School Grade by Removing Social Studies and Science Components

2016 Grade	No Change	+1 Change	+2 Change	+3 Change	+4 Change	Total
A	752	0	0	0	0	752
B	1	760	0	0	0	761
C	5	3	1,275	0	0	1,283
D	7	49	171	158	0	385
F	24	0	21	63	1	109
Total	789	812	1,467	221	1	3,290

Source: FLDOE 2016 School Grade Results Note: Only schools that teach Civics and/or US History are included.

The terms “positively” and “negatively” impacted are misnomers in this analysis. Schools that would have experienced an increase in their school grade are underperforming in those components because they are a diminishing force in the overall calculation. A caveat to this result is the school type where extra components may be added, for example a K-8 school.

Summary

There are some recommendations to consider in order to maximize school efficacy. First and foremost, teach science and social studies, they are one of the “biggest bangs for your buck” in the relative scheme of school grade components. Second, reach the identified lowest quartile students, they weight half as much as science and social studies, but more than achievement alone, and are on par with a large return on that focused investment. Lastly, ensure resources are properly allocated to respective areas. Permanent substitute teachers are not appropriate in grade 5 (science) or grade 8 science, nor are they well suited for any End-of-course exam class (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Civics, US History, and Biology).