WS/FCS considers summer retesting to boost school performance grades

A summer retesting program will be up for consideration at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education meeting Tuesday night. 

District officials say it will give schools a chance to improve their performance grades. 

Students who didn’t score on grade level for their final assessments would have the option to attend remediation, and retake those tests over the summer.

WS/FCS Chief Accountability Officer Andrew Kraft explained the program at a recent board of education meeting. 

He said the district has offered this before at the elementary and middle school level, but that this year, high school principals have also asked to participate.

“Why would a high school principal want to have this happen? The answer is they can get a bump in their school performance grade,” Kraft said. “So if a child is proficient, if they demonstrate proficiency in the retest, that will be added to the school performance grade.”

Eighty percent of North Carolina’s school performance grade calculation is based on students’ End-of-Grade test scores. When students aren’t proficient on those assessments, their school’s grade goes down. 

Kraft said schools could see a 5% to 10% bump in their grade depending on how well students do on the retest. Without the program, he said WS/FCS might not fare as well as others in the state. 

“It puts our district and our schools at a slight competitive disadvantage if we don't because most districts in the state do participate,” he said. 

Kraft said the majority of schools in the district support this initiative. 

The program would take place over three days in June. Transportation and food would be provided for students who attend.