Policy Reports
Grading Our Schools 2002: NCEA's Fifth Annual Report to North Carolina Parents

February 25, 2003

The Evolving ABCs

In its January 2002 statement, the State Board of Education identified the ABCs of Public Education as “a comprehensive plan to restructure public schools.” Originally approved as a pilot program in 1995-96, the ABCs restructuring plan, which encompasses the tests, academic subjects, and students being tested, has been dramatically revised each year. Well-known problems with math and writing exams in recent years have resulted in even less continuity in the annual tests.

Following the one-year pilot period, grades K-8 were added in 1996-97, and the first ABCs report was issued that year. In 1997-98, high schools were added. Mandatory measures included five end-of-course exams, SATs, SAT participation rates, graduation rates, and others. Also in 1997, seventh-grade writing scores were added for the first time to the growth composite; Algebra I scores from middle school grades were grouped with high school scores; charter schools were included for the first time; and a new, comprehensive ABCs model was developed. Perhaps most significantly, a “confidence band” around the 50 percent proficiency mark was substituted for a straight 50 percent cutoff. The band around the 50 percent cutoff provided leeway that allowed some schools to avoid penalties for low performance.

In each year since its inception, there have been changes in ABCs content, definitions, and reporting. It is not surprising, therefore, that citizens find the perennially improving ABCs scores puzzling in light of North Carolina’s low national ranking, and below-average (though improving) scores on the nationally standardized SATs.

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