School districts across the state saw fewer A grades in 2016 when the Indiana State Board of Education released the latest data today.
Although for individual schools, poor grades can bring consequences such as state intervention or takeover, for districts, there are no sanctions. Overall for 2016, 7.9 percent of Indiana districts received As, 60.5 percent received Bs, 29.4 received Cs, 1.73 percent received Ds and 0.35 percent received an F.
Cynthia Roach, director of testing and accountability for the state board, said officials expected grades to cluster in the middle of the scale — more Bs and Cs and fewer As and Fs. Those results are consistent with trends seen in individual school A-F grades and 2016 ISTEP scores, which dropped for the second straight year.
Last year, lawmakers voted to shield schools and districts from dramatically lower 2015 ISTEP scores, the result of a new more difficult test. As a result, 2015 grades were only changed from 2014 grades if they were better. That means 2016 is the first year that grades have been released showing the true impact of a more challenging test.
But generally, it’s tough to compare 2016 to 2015, and not just because of the more challenging 2015 ISTEP test and the resulting action by lawmakers. Indiana is also using a brand new model to calculate A-F school and district grades for 2016, in which test scores and test score improvement is weighted equally. Other non-test-based measures are also included in the new formula. Previously, the most important factor was whether kids passed the test.
In Marion County, only Speedway Schools got an A grade from the state in 2016. Franklin and Perry townships got Bs, Indianapolis Public Schools got a D, and the rest of the county’s districts got Cs. No district received an F.
McCormick, at her first state board meeting today where she was elected board chairwoman, said testing is one of her priorities, and she’s hoping to examine both state tests and how the state measures schools as she moves forward with her administration.
“I know the field is frustrated,” McCormick said. “Obviously we have work to do in the assessment arena. We’re going to tackle that… We can’t have that conversation without talking about accountability in the same breath.”