By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Arizona’s school letter grading system can give parents a misleading picture of school performance — a concern first raised by 13 Investigates two years ago and now echoed by an independent state audit that also found the State Board of Education failed to comply with parts of state law for eight years.
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When parents choose a school, many start with a school letter grade.
BENDING THE CURVE SERIES
- New rule puts grading of Arizona schools into question
- Can school letter grades assigned to high schools be trusted?
- State superintendent describes Tucson USD’s questionable fast-track to graduation as ‘a fraud’
- State hands out letter grades for southern Arizona schools
- Pima County schools show mixed performance in latest state data
- Arizona lawmaker drafts major education system overhaul
- Letter grades out of sync with learning, what Arizona parents should know
Cassandra Valencia said an A means “it’s a very higher-end school. They’re teaching a whole lot, and kids are learning a lot.”
Parent Venessa Martinez said a lower letter grade would lead her to believe her daughter “probably not going to learn as much and be academically taught as much as, like, an A school would be.”
Parent Anissa Cardenas said she doesn’t know “that the average parent knows what goes into it.”
What the investigation found
Our Bending the Curve Investigation, which won 13 News’ Valerie Cavazos another Murrow Award, began in 2023.
It found schools earning high letter grades despite low academic proficiency. One school jumped from an F to a B in four years even though its proficiency score remained below 10 proficiency points.
The reason: the grading formula had changed, but many people did not know it. Under that formula, student growth counted for 50% — with the number of years used to measure that growth shortened — while academic proficiency counted for 30%.
State Superintendent Tom Horne, who also sits on the Education Board, agreed then and still says now a single school letter grade can be misleading.
“When you mix up proficiency and progress, you end up with a grade that is essentially meaningless, because it mixes two very different things,” Horne said.
Audit reaches same conclusion
Arizona’s independent Auditor General has since reached much the same conclusion.
Its recent audit warns the state’s single letter grade system can give parents a “misleading picture of school performance.”
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When asked two years ago why schools are not given two grades — one for growth and one for proficiency — Horne said that information is available on the state’s website. That information, however, is available only as data, not as letter grades.
The law the board didn’t follow
That distinction is significant.
In 2018, the Legislature required under A.R.S. 15-241 two separate things: letter grades for each performance indicator — such as proficiency and growth — and one overall school letter grade. The board issued the overall school letter grade but did not issue letter grades for each performance indicator as required by statute.
The audit concluded that failure deprived parents and the public of critical school accountability information.
State Representative Nancy Gutierrez, who sits on the education committee, said the current measure “is not a clear measure” and that a grading system “should tell parents what to expect from this particular school.”
She said the board has had the authority to assign letter grades for each performance indicator since 2018.
Why it took eight years
When asked what held up implementation, Horne said there was no pushback and that “making a change within the current legislation… is very technically complicated.”
Horne said the board is making those changes now. The audit shows that work did not begin until late 2025. What remains unclear is why a law passed in 2018 took eight years to implement.
Under current law, only one overall school letter grade is permitted. Creating separate letter grades for proficiency and growth would require the Legislature to change the law.
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