GREENSBORO, N.C. — Grades on report cards across North Carolina might be wrong. The North Carolina Department Of Public Insturction says software used by teachers across the state to calculate grades suffered a glitch. Officials said the program miscalculated some grades.
“We continue to investigate the scope of the issue; for now we can say that as many as 109 school districts and 59 charter schools may have been affected to varying degrees by the grade-calculation function in PowerSchool’s PowerTeacher Pro application, which teachers use to enter assignments and grades,” said Drew Elliot, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Instruction.
Elliot said DPI has been in communication with school districts across the state since mid-December regarding the issue. Elliot said the software glitch has since been fixed, and any schools or districts that use a different tool for calculating term grades are not affected.
Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools say the district didn't experience any problems and that they wouldn't be finalizing grades until later this week. They're also working with DPI to ensure it won't become a problem going forward.
Thomasville City Schools put out a statement saying:
- ERRORS HAVE RECENTLY BEEN FOUND WITH GRADE CALCULATIONS IN POWERSCHOOL, OUR STATE WIDE DATA SYSTEM. THE ERRORS ARE IN THE ROUNDING OF GRADES WITH DECIMALS AND COULD AFFECT QUARTER 1 AND QUARTER 2 GRADES. FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, THAT COULD ALSO MEAN ERRORS IN SEMESTER AVERAGES. THESE ERRORS ARE NOT ISOLATED TO THOMASVILLE. THIS IS A STATEWIDE ISSUE RESULTING FROM A DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION UPDATE TO THE SYSTEM IN DECEMBER. THE VAST MAJORITY OF NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICTS HAVE REPORTED ISSUES AND CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE AFFECTED AS WELL. ERRORS ARE IN THE NUMERIC GRADES USED IN GRADES 3-12. STANDARDS BASED GRADING USED IN K-2 IS NOT AFFECTED. WE ARE WORKING THROUGH CORRECTIONS NEEDED AT THE DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEVEL TO ASSURE AND VERIFY THAT ALL STUDENT GRADES ARE CORRECT. OUR PRIORITY IS THAT NO STUDENT WILL BE NEGATIVELY AFFECTED BY THIS ISSUE AND THAT ERRORS IN EARNED GRADES WILL BE CORRECTED. WE WILL DELAY THE UPCOMING REPORT CARD DISTRIBUTION IN ORDER TO CORRECT THESE ERRORS. REPORT CARDS WILL NOT GO HOME ON JANUARY 28 AS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED. THE NEW DISTRIBUTION DATE WILL BE FEBRUARY 6. K-2 GRADES ARE NOT AFFECTED, K-2 TEACHERS SHOULD STAY WITH THE CURRENT TIMELINE FOR SUBMITTING GRADES AND DISTRIBUTING REPORT CARDS.