OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma will continue with an update to its A-F grading system for school performance even though new federal regulations don't require states to grade schools using that system or any other single indicator score.
State superintendent Joy Hofmeister has been overseeing an effort to recommend updates to Oklahoma's A-F grading system.
Hofmeister said the new report card will include a dashboard that provides additional information about student growth and school performance.
Oklahoma's school grade cards were intended to make it easy to gauge the performance of public schools, but they have been criticized by educators and parents. Hofmeister has also been critical of the system, saying it masks student growth indicators and troubling trends like low high school graduation rates in school with above average grades.
A 95-member task force made up of state and local education leaders, business and chamber of commerce executives, and representatives of teacher and parent associations and tribal governments are working on proposals to overhaul the state's student testing to meet new state requirements. The final report much delivered to state Legislature by Feb. 3.
The U.S. Department of Education initially said states have until the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year to have a system for identifying lowest-performing schools, but the final regulations given Monday gave a one-year extension to that deadline.