The longest serving K-12 Educrat wants you to head to her brand new website:

Please go to my new website https://t.co/b8yUFDUbJC. #ncpol #nced

— June Atkinson (@DrJuneAtkinson) November 24, 2015

Don’t get too excited, it’s literally one page and doesn’t mention any of her big accomplishments like bringing the wonderful Common Core to North Carolina:

I have a 1 page site that doesn’t say I brought #CommonCore to NC. Vote for me or something. #StuffAtkinsonSays pic.twitter.com/XFxextoB7D

— A.P. Dillon – LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) December 1, 2015

What this one pager does include is a single statistic:

“Our graduation rate has increased from 68 percent when I first became state superintendent to an all time high of nearly 86 percent this past year.”

Yeah… About that graduation rate…

QUESTION: How are we graduating nearly 86% when the NC School report card released this week shows NC students who are “career and college ready” at 47.9% and grade level proficiency at 57.9%?

Over 86% graduation rate? Yet “Career and College proficiency” at 47.9% after 3 full years of Common Core. #nced pic.twitter.com/BzFkzYXyag

— A.P. Dillon – LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) December 1, 2015

86% Graduation rate, yet only 57.9% “Proficient”… after 3 full years of Common Core. #nced pic.twitter.com/IxwOEQa6Fe

— A.P. Dillon – LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) December 1, 2015

These rates are disturbing given that NC even lowered the bar last year by changing the proficiency scale from four levels to five, thereby padding who is considered proficient and who isn’t. It also turned comparing prior years scores with current ones into a very laborious and frustrating task.

Now factor in that high school students will get more padding with the new grading scale next year as they move to a seven point scale:

North Carolina schools currently use a seven-point scale, meaning an “A” is a score from 93 to 100.

Under the new grading scale, an “A” is a score from 90 to 100.

I’ll have more as I dig through the data. From what I’ve seen so far with the 3rd grade scores, all is not well in ‘career and college ready’ land.

Related Reading:

• 2007 –  Changing Graduation Requirements
• 2008: Graduation rate is flat
• 10 Point Grading Scale Is A Trojan Horse
• NC High School Graduation requirements (DPI)
• NC High School Course/Credit by Grade (DPI PDF)