(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

It was a packed meeting room as the Arizona Board of Education voted on the new A-F school grading system.

Arizona education officials have approved a new A-F grading system to determine how well Arizona public schools are performing. It passed the Arizona State Board of Education on a 7-2 vote Monday morning.

The board's April meeting was packed, with about 100 people filling up the available seats.

Eighteen people requested time to speak publicly. Several, expressed concerns that arts and physical education weren’t considered more. Catherine “Rusty” Foley with Arizona Citizens for the Arts said she needed more than just a promise that the issue would be considered again next year.   

"At this point we’re extremely uncomfortable with the vagueness of that position," said Foley. "And [we] do not believe that it offers us any insurance that the state board or the A-F committee will assign a priority to readdressing these particular issues."

Others, like Chris Kotterman with the Arizona School Boards Association, said they were pleased that these models put a stronger emphasis on student growth that the state’s past systems.

"This model before you is the closest we’ve ever gotten to some form of consensus on A-F modeling," Kotterman said. "It does have some issues. But that’s also why we support President Ballantyne’s idea that this should be an iterative process. That we shouldn’t walk away from this process and wash our hands of it."

Here’s how the new models will break down for K-8:

Here's how the model breaks down for high schools: