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By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

The State Department of Education released a letter grade report card for all public schools and school systems for the 2016-2017 school year, Thursday, Feb. 1. And Lowndes County Public Schools received an overall grade of C.

However, all but one Lowndes County school received a D. Hayneville Middle School received an F.

Lowndes County School Superintendent Dr. Daniel Boyd said, “We did get a letter grade, and the report card grades were not as good as we wanted them to be.”

He said, “I have met with all principals and had meeting in all the schools, where I met with the principals and some of their leaders at the schools, and discussed academic progress or the lack thereof. And we have some plans in place to work to improve it.”

Boyd said the report card was changed before Christmas break. He said, “On the other report card, our district would have done considerably better. But… it is what it is because they changed the parameters of the report card, we didn’t fare as well.”

But, he said, “I guarantee you this… next year, being that we know what is on the report card and what we were graded on, we’re going to do better than we did this year. Mark my word, our report card will be better next year.”

According to the State Department of Education, “Adhering to state and federal laws, and desiring to keep the public informed about public schools, the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) released a single Prototype Report Card for the state, including all school systems and each school with Grades 3 – 12.”

According to the State Department of Education, “The Alabama State Report Card is designed so parents, educators, stakeholders, and others can easily understand how their schools are doing, just as report cards help parents understand how their children are doing. The goals of the Alabama State Report Card are to provide a starting point, with easy – to – understand and concise information showing how a school is meeting goals, and to make sure that schools are accountable for explaining that to their communities.”

The results are: Of Alabama’s 137 school systems, 76 percent received either an A, B, or C; 73 percent of the schools without a Grade 12 received either an A, B, or C; and 77 percent of schools with a Grade 12 received an A, B, or C.

No school system received an F, but 95 schools without a Grade 12 and nine schools with a Grade 12 did receive F’s.

According to the report card for Lowndes County, Lowndes County received an overall grade of C with a graduation rate of 88.80 percent, academic achievement rate of (37), academic growth of (78.41) college/career readiness at a rate of 64 percent and had chronic absenteeism of 16.36 percent.

The Calhoun School received a D with an academic achievement of 16.96, academic growth of 81.94, graduation rate of 88.80 percent, career readiness of 72 percent and chronic absenteeism of 24.16 percent.

Central High received a D with an academic achievement of 18.48, academic growth of 84.13, graduation rate of 88.80 percent, college/career readiness of 54 percent and absenteeism of 24.68 percent.

Central Elementary received a D, had academic achievement of 49.10, academic growth of 80.99 and chronic absenteeism of 8.17 percent.

Hayneville Middle received an F with an academic achievement of 33.17, academic growth of 68.58 and chronic absenteeism of 18.18 percent.

Fort Deposit Elementary received a D with academic achievement of 37.19, academic growth of 77.08 and chronic absenteeism of 7.26 percent.

Jackson-Steele Elementary received a D with academic achievement of 45.43, academic growth of 75.82 and chronic absenteeism of 21.79.

Lowndes County Middle School received a D with academic achievement of 43.85, academic growth of 86.07 and chronic absenteeism of 11.41.

The overall grade for the state was a C, academic achievement was 60.22, academic growth was 87.86, the graduation rate of 87 percent, career and college readiness was 66 percent and chronic absenteeism was 17.68 percent.