Report cards are in for Cullman County’s two school districts, with city schools rated among the state’s best and county schools ranking above average.

The Alabama State Department of Education released status reports for all schools to reflect their respective performance, as required by state law. The A-F Report Card indicators released this past month include: learning gains (for schools without 12th grade), student achievement, local indicators, and graduation rate (for schools with 12th grade).

Systemwide, Cullman City Schools scored accordingly: 100 percent for learning gains in math and reading, 83.77 percent for student achievement in those two subjects, 94 percent graduation rate and 100 percent for local indicator for student success.

Overall, Cullman County Schools scored the following: 90.89 percent for learning gains in math and reading, 61.2 percent for student achievement in the two subjects, 90 percent graduation rate and 100 percent for local indicator for student success.

The performance indicators released this month made up 75 percent of the score, with presumably the remaining 25 percent of indicators to be released beginning in December 2017 when the state determines an overall grade for schools and districts.

Learning gains made up 30 percent of the total score, followed by 20 percent each for student achievement and graduation rate and 5 percent for local indicators. It’s not clear how the scores may be affected by the state’s recent announcement that graduation rates were not accurate and that there were cases where students had been awarded diplomas they did not earn.

The state uses testing and other key performance indicators to develop a profile of schools and school districts, including at minimum, test scores, achievement gaps, college and career readiness, learning gains and other indicators chosen by the State Superintendent to impact student learning and success.

The goal is to provide “another transparent layer of accountability” for elementary and secondary education and data for all stakeholders to identify areas where schools are succeeding and where they need to improve, according to the ALSDE.

You can use the Alabama State Department of Education’s database to search for schools at https://ap.alsde.edu/accountability/atof.