Coolidge educators react to 1st school grades in 2 years

This is because the state wasn’t sure how to fairly assess the success of the novel forms of distance-learning that sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic and instead opted for a state academic impact report for the 2020-2021 school year.

After being back in person for over a year, the individual grades are back and Coolidge education leaders are sharing their thoughts on the results.

The Coolidge Unified School District has five schools; three elementary schools, one alternative program and a high school.

For the elementary schools, West Elementary and Coolidge Junior High School both received D ratings, while Heartland Ranch Elementary finished the 2021-2022 school year with a C.

Coolidge High School ranked the highest in the district with a B rating, while the Coolidge Alternative Program, which serves grades 6-12, received a C.

“Although some of our schools may not have received the letter grade they would have liked, every single one of our schools improved their point totals from years prior,” wrote CUSD Superintendent Dawn Dee Hodge in an email to PinalCentral. “We are incredibly proud of our hardworking students and educators, who put forth their best efforts every day in the classroom.

“As a district, our focus is on continuous improvement and ensuring all our students have an opportunity to thrive. While we appreciate the opportunity to share our students’ achievements and to be accountable for results, we also recognize that the A-F letter grade formula that relies mostly on standardized test scores does not tell the whole story of student performance and growth.”

Elementary, or K-8 schools, are primarily graded on proficiency and growth, she said, but 10% of the grade is a specific measurement of just third and eighth grade students, decreasing chronic absenteeism, special education inclusion and specific subgroup growth, while another 10% comes from the measured growth of English-language learning students. High schools and alternative programs are also measured for proficiency and growth but graduation rate and College and Career Readiness are factored in as well, she continued.

“Coolidge High School receiving a B letter grade is a wonderful accomplishment,” Hodge wrote. “We are happy to see the improvement and trust that we will continue to see growth. This is the same for all of our sites. Both of our schools that received a D rating were within a point of receiving a C.

“We have addressed the grades with each site, have identified our opportunities for growth and developed plans for the remainder of the school year to address the deficiencies. We fully anticipate additional improvement going into next school year.”

The only other assessed schools in Coolidge — Imagine Coolidge Elementary and its feeder high school Imagine Prep Coolidge, received a B and C, respectively.

In response to their grade, Erik Collins, Imagine Coolidge Elementary principal, wrote to PinalCentral that the charter school “is extremely proud of our students and thankful for the continued dedication of our outstanding educators.

“We have seen exceptional growth from all students. As a result of our teachers’ dedication to high-quality instruction and the implementation of interventions, we are eliminating the learning loss that has been prevalent in education for a long time and that was accelerated over the past two years due to the pandemic.”

Collins said the school is using data on each individual student to track, monitor and adjust instruction. He said students are aware of their data and are encouraged to set intrinsic learning goals.

“Imagine Coolidge Elementary School’s student growth and achievement data would indicate that we are on the right track at this time,” Collins wrote. “Over the past two years, we were able to increase our school performance score by 11%.”

This is their second B, he wrote. But, this year, they received 84.17 points, “which is just a half a point shy of an A.”

Imagine Prep Principal Rachel Hernandez said the school is happy with the current results after navigating a particularly tumultuous learning environment in the past two years.

“While we understand that COVID took a toll on student learning and impacted our students in other ways outside of the classroom, we view the whole child with relation to academic growth and achievement,” she wrote in an email to PinalCentral. “Students are able to track their own progress and celebrate reaching their goals, which creates self-efficacy and for many, hope about their future.”

She said the key to improving the score is to put teachers at the forefront of their planning and overall model as a school.

“The more teachers are supported, the more they will be better equipped and have more confidence to educate our students effectively,” wrote Hernandez. “Additionally, retaining high-quality teachers who care about students is essential.

“With teacher shortages all across the nation, understanding the educator autonomy and trust along with accountability in our community is important.”