Utah schools would no longer get a letter grade each year for performance — a system that has been largely criticized for relying too much on test scores and accounting too little for diversity — under a bill that gained committee approval Monday.
The measure to do away with the controversial A through F grades has come up in the Legislature almost every year since they were first put in place in Utah five years ago. But this session, with the leaders who previously opposed those bills now retired, the effort could gain some momentum.
“A single letter grade is too simplistic,” said the sponsor, Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights. “It doesn’t always tell us what is really going on in the school.”
