By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
As we have discussed in earlier columns, the nation’s new federal education law that replaced the No Child Left Behind act is titled the Every Student Succeeds Act. This law includes a variety of requirements to which Indiana needs to respond.
One of the first responsibilities that our state board of education has needed to address is changing Indiana’s A-F accountability grading system to meet the requirements of the new law.
To be clear, the grading system that is being addressed is the model that currently grades schools and districts with letter grades from A through F.
The law does not speak to ways in which schools and districts are required to grade students in their classes. Grading for students is still a local determination.
The Indiana State Board of Education has developed a plan that will be submitted to the governor’s office and will ultimately be submitted to federal offices in mid-September.
Interestingly, all public schools and public school districts in Indiana are under the umbrella of these new stipulations right now, even though they were recently formulated and have not yet been formally adopted. Therefore, it is important for us to understand the new design for schools and districts under the new model for letter grading accountability.
There will now be four criteria for elementary and middle schools and five criteria for our high school that will be factored into the calculation of the A-F accountability letter grade.
The criteria will be weighted according to the school’s population and availability of data.
First, for elementary and middle schools, we will now be held accountable for chronic absenteeism of our students.
Schools will be monitored and held accountable for students that achieve 96 percent attendance rates as well as students that show improvement in their attendance rate.
The goal is that at least 80 percent of students would meet either one of those benchmarks.
This is a troubling measure for accountability, as the schools and the school district have little power over ensuring if a student is in attendance at school.
Second, for elementary, middle and high school, we will be held accountable, as had been done previously, for test score proficiency. We also will be held accountable for a third factor, test score growth.
The change during school year 2018-19 will be that these factors will now be aligned with the new assessment for Indiana that replaces the ISTEP+ assessment, ILEARN.
Fourth, for all of our schools, we will be held accountable for the proficiency and growth data for our students who are English language learners.
While the number of students in Brown County served as English language learners is small, we will be accountable for ensuring that their proficiency and growth on assessments is strong.
Last, students who attend Brown County High School will again be tracked, and the school will be held accountable, for the number of students who take dual credit classes, Advanced Placement classes, and earn workplace certifications. Currently, 25 percent of the student population must hit one of these targets and the indications are that this percentage will be reevaluated and potentially increased.
We are prepared to be mindful regarding these new requirements and will be intentional with our strategies for attaining success in all domains.
We are frustrated by the domains where we have little to no control; however, we will be creative in addressing those issues and will strive to attain indications for which our community is proud.
Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or [email protected].
