Tempe School District presents letter-grade breakdown, cites modest proficiency gains and attendance impacts
Summary
District staff explained ArizonaA-F letter-grade components and showed TempeSchool Districtaverage near 79.98 (a B); officials highlighted small proficiency gains since 2022, volatility in growth measures after methodology changes, and said chronic absenteeism and new "nonfundable" attendance rules contributed to lost points.
Dr. Ashley Hargrave, the districtdirector of school leadership and federal programs, told the Tempe School District Governing Board that Arizonaschool letter grades are calculated from multiple components: proficiency (30%), growth (50%), an English-learner component, and acceleration/readiness (10%). She said the districtaverage across schools was 79.98, which places the district in the B range under state cut scores.
Hargrave explained the statemethodology in detail, noting two calculation methods for proficiency (single-year snapshot and a stability model that weights students by years enrolled) and that the state awards whichever method yields the higher score. She said 95% testing participation is required and that minimally proficient results receive no proficiency credit, while partially proficient and highly proficient results carry 0.6 and 1.3 multipliers, respectively.
The presentation pointed to modest gains in proficiency since 2022 (about a two-point increase in the proficiency component) and described growth score volatility after business-rule changes removed a prior "student growth target" measure. Hargrave said growth is now measured via student growth percentiles relative to peer sets, which can cause scores to shift when statewide averages change.
Board members asked about the composition of highly proficient students (the 1.3 multiplier). Hargrave said the population of highly proficient students in the district is small — “less than 5% districtwide” — and offered to provide a district breakdown upon request. Members also pressed on chronic absenteeism. Staff said a district initiative called Everyday Labs previously decreased chronic absenteeism by about 10% in a targeted effort, but that changes in state accounting (including newly tracked "nonfundable" attendance periods) have affected district calculations and funding for short windows when students miss consecutive days.
Officials said they have identified roughly 30 students who fell into a newly defined nonfundable period and are working with attendance teams to document medical or other exemptions. The board heard that chronic absenteeism and particular subgroup outcomes (special education inclusion, third-grade reading, eighth-grade math) are common sources of lost points under the letter-grade framework.
Board Chair remarks during the meeting underscored the districtconcern about attendance, including an illustrative claim that educating a child "on the low end" costs "$70,000," which the chair presented as an explanatory figure; the district did not provide a documentary citation for that number during the meeting.
The board and staff said they will continue to monitor inclusion practices after a recent special education audit and will communicate with families about attendance and fundable-period rules. Staff offered to supply disaggregated data for highly proficient students and additional details about growth-calculation changes to any board member who requests them.
Whathappens next: Board members asked staff to provide follow-up detail on highly proficient counts and on nonfundable attendance cases; no formal board action was taken during the presentation portion of the meeting.
