Brown County Schools has two As, four Bs and a C on its report card.
The grades came from the Indiana Department of Education. They’re the 2015-16 “school accountability” A-to-F ratings, which the state assigns to each school based primarily on standardized test scores.
The two As went to Van Buren and Sprunica elementaries; the Bs to the high school, intermediate school, Helmsburg Elementary and the district as a whole; and the C to the junior high.
Most schools’ grades are based on how students performed on the ISTEP+ test last school year and how much they grew from the last time they took it.
For high schools, the growth factor is replaced with measurements of graduation rates and college and career readiness, such as dual credit offerings in the high school and the number of students who pass Advanced Placement exams.
Because of frustrations with the ISTEP testing process, last year, schools and school corporations were held harmless and received the same accountability letter grades from the year before. This meant Brown County Schools received As across the board, since those were the grades from 2013-14.
Even though that test data wasn’t taken into consideration for the previous year’s school accountability grades, it was used to measure growth for this year’s grades.
In ISTEP testing for 2013-14, 81.8 percent of Brown County students passed by the English and math portions — well above the state’s 74.7 percent.
For 2014-15, fewer Brown County students passed both: 53.1 percent compared to the state’s 53.5.
For new Brown County Schools Superintendent Laura Hammack, the school grades are something they can be proud of considering students were tested on new academic standards and teachers only had a few months to adjust.
“Clearly, we want to get back to the place where we can see letter grades of A if the state decides to keep the model in place,” she said.
“This is the first true picture of this new assessment, and quite honestly, compared with data I reviewed last year before hold-harmless was put into effect, I was rather pleased.”
Moving targets
Sprunica and Van Buren elementary schools were the two schools to receive A grades.
“I just have to give all credit to my staff and to the students and really just Van Buren as a whole, because it takes the effort of an entire team to improve scores and help children succeed, no matter whether it’s ISTEP or any other assessment or grading,” Van Buren Principal Christy Wrightsman said.
For the 2012-13 school year, Van Buren received a C. The school has received As for the past two school years.
Wrightsman took over as principal of Van Buren in 2013-14 after the school board closed Nashville Elementary School, where she was principal. Van Buren absorbed the largest amount of students and staff from Nashville.
Wrightsman said successfully uniting the two learning communities and putting an intentional focus on math has led to Van Buren’s improvement.
Sprunica Principal Abbie Oliver said her staff teaches to each child. That’s the school’s way of preparing for a state assessment that is ever-changing.
She called the A letter grade a “double-edged sword.”
“To be honest, I’m happy for the staff, and students and parents just because this community works so very hard and it feels like a payoff, but it’s such a flawed system that it’s frustrating at the same time,” Oliver said.
“I can tell you I’ve been in every school in our district, and hard work happens everywhere. It’s one of those things where you’re grateful, yet also, because it’s flawed, it’s not quite as meaningful.”
Last year, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law. ESSA is intended to “fix” No Child Left Behind, signed by President George W. Bush in January 2002. No Child Left Behind required states to test students in third through eighth grades on math and English, with testing also happening once in high school.
The new ESSA puts that power in the hands of the state instead of the federal government. The Indiana General Assembly will be discussing how to do that when it convenes in January.
“We’re really curious to see how the state responds this year. They may take state letter grades away altogether. They may come up with another way of issuing accountability,” Hammack said.
Also, after the 2017-18 school year, a new exam will replace the ISTEP+ and legislators are responsible for determining what the replacement will be.
The ISTEP+ Alternatives Panel recommended giving the test in one sitting, not two, and giving it in May rather than in the middle of the second semester. Hammack would like those recommendations to become reality.
“It’s fair to say we’re waiting on pins and needles as far as what this new assessment is going to be. We just don’t know,” she said.
“These moving targets are very challenging for public schools to respond to, and we feel like we’ve been on kind of like a roller-coaster over the past few years as far as what the expectations are.”
