ECSS gets C on report card
Published 12:04 am Wednesday, February 7, 2018
By Kendra Majors
The Brewton Standard
Grades for Alabama’s first report card were released recently.
Brewton City Schools earned a B and Escambia County Schools earned a C.
Statewide of the 1,247 schools that earned grades, there were 137 As, 352 Bs, 437 Cs, 217 Ds, and 104 Fs.
Of the 137 school districts, 12 earned As, 52 Bs, 54 Cs and 19 Ds.
School officials have worked six years to produce the first report card in more than a decade.
Statewide, the schools earned a 79.
Locally, Brewton City Schools earned an 86 B and Escambia County Schools earned 78 C.
Individually, Brewton Elementary School earned an 86 B, while both Brewton Middle and T.R. Miller High School earned 83 B.
Within the Escambia County School system, the grades were as follows:
• Escambia County High School, 66 D;
• Escambia County Middle School, 69 D;
• Flomaton Elementary, 83 B;
• Flomaton High School, 81 B;
• Huxford Elementary, 83 B;
• Pollard-McCall Jr. High, 81 B;
• WS Neal Elementary School, 80 B;
• WS Neal High School, 76 C;
• WS Neal Middle, 84 B.
Both superintendents agreed that the report card doesn’t show the bigger picture of all the things that educators are doing to impact students.
“I knew what the results were,” ECS Superintendent John Knott said. “My position doesn’t change a bit. I have no confidence in the system we have in place for reporting to the public what is going on in the schools.”
Knott said that just because the report shows that most of his schools have Bs and Cs doesn’t mean that they are average.
“I’m not saying it’s not important, I’m just saying that it’s just a piece,” he said. “As far as reporting how we stand in relation to other schools, it’s inaccurate.”
Knott said he was concerned that in grades three through eight that 90 percent of the grade is based on the ASPIRE.
Knott said he’s all for open accountability, but he would like to see a system that actually measures the standards for which school systems are supposed to be teaching students.
“The elephant in the room, if you’ll look across the state, if you’ll look at the poverty rates, there’s huge connect there. In areas where there is no poverty, they have higher scores,” he said.