Commissioner of Education Michael Williams announced this morning that he does not need the Legislature’s authority to implement an A–F rating system for public schools and that he plans to do just that in the coming weeks. An A–F rating system is included in the broad education reforms of Public Education Committee Chairman Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock’s House Bill (HB) 5. During last week’s debate on the bill, ATPE supported amendments to remove the provision that calls for rating schools using A–F letter grades because we believe labeling struggling schools as “failures” is harmful to students. In fact, it was the only major point of contention in the bill, which ATPE otherwise supports. However, the provision survived and HB 5 was approved almost unanimously. The Senate is considering similar legislation that also calls for grading schools with A-F letter grades. Williams appeared before the Senate Education Committee this morning and said that he will bypass legislative negotiations on the bills and simply order the agency to implement the new rating system, which will go into effect in 2014. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.  How do you think an A–F rating would affect your school? Let us know in the comments.