The Indiana General Assembly set up a daunting task in requiring letter grades for more than 2,100 public and private schools – schools that serve students from across the economic spectrum and from vastly different starting points in the learning process. A review panel’s overhaul of Indiana’s A-F accountability system overcomes those obstacles and meets requirements the original grading formula failed to deliver: • It is based on the best practices of other state accountability systems. • It incorporates a wide range of data. •It is fair and more transparent. Steve Yager, superintendent of Southwest Allen County Schools, was co-chairman of the review panel along with Glenda Ritz, Indiana superintendent of public instruction. A redesign of the accountability system was ordered by the Indiana General Assembly last spring after educators statewide complained that the grading system established under former state Superintendent Tony Bennett was incomprehensible. The task grew tougher when it was revealed that last-minutes changes were applied to the formula, elevating a favored charter school from a C to an A. Increasing rancor between Ritz, a Democrat, and Republican Gov. Mike Pence and his appointees to the State Board of Education certainly didn’t help, but the review panel’s composition allowed it to move ahead. “It was a large group of bright people committed to what’s best for boys and girls,” Yager said in an interview. “It was ‘check your hats at the door, check your egos at the door; let’s do what’s best for students,’ and by and large, they were able to do that. … Everyone significantly contributed.” The Southwest Allen schools chief, who will retire at the end of this school year, said his involvement stemmed from a meeting the four Allen County public school superintendents had last summer with Senate President Pro Tem David Long and Sen. Dennis Kruse, chairman of the Senate education committee. “We asked them to put educators at the table,” Yager said. The result was a 17-member panel with 14 professional educators, including Huntington teacher Melanie Park and Bluffton High School Principal Steve Baker. Instead of a formula that compares students’ performance, they propose a formula measuring individual students’ growth from the school year’s start to finish. A recommendation to add measures for first- and second-graders quickly drew complaints, but the proposal isn’t to expand ISTEP+ tests but instead to use an existing assessment. The goal, according to Yager, is to eventually eliminate the high-stakes IREAD-3 test, which defies all sound educational practices by holding back struggling readers. “I’m confident we did the best we could under the time constraints,” he said of the proposal. “It’s easily understood; it’s very transparent.” The superintendent, now in his 41st year in public education, said it’s the most challenging education task he’s faced, but also the one he believes will have the most impact. It will if the State Board of Education puts aside its differences with Ritz and endorses the plan, which it will review on Friday. The board, with five new appointees since last year, can distance itself from the confusion and distrust created by the previous grading formula and move forward with a framework that satisfies the ultimate goal of school accountability. journalgazette.net/article/20131106/EDIT05/311069992/1147/EDIT07
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 09:44:01 +0000
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