Majority Of Local Schools See Improvement in Grades
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
The Indiana Department of Education released Public Law 221 “A” through “F” school category placements this morning at the State Board of Education meeting.
Of 30 schools locally, 16 improved their letter grade this year compared to 2011. Only five schools saw their grade drop, while nine schools’ grades remained the same in 2012 as 2011.
According to a press release from IDOE, more than 61 percent of Indiana’s schools received “A” or “B” letter grades for the 2011-12 school year. This year, 207 schools received “A’s” for the first time.
Eight of the 11 Warsaw Community School Corp. schools were among those schools receiving “A’s” for the first time. This is also the first time every Warsaw school received an “A.”
WCS Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz is pleased with Warsaw’s placements.
“As a system, we couldn’t be more pleased with the progress we made over the past year, especially from when the grades were released the same time last year,” Hintz said. “We attribute it to our really wonderful relationship with our teachers, the opportunity to collaborate about their work, working interdependently toward a common goal. And certainly about this time last year, members of our (Professional Learning Communities) steering committee made up of teachers, principals and district staff – we set the goal that we would make (Adequate Yearly Progress).”
The first set of letter grades were released in 2011, he said, “And certainly, it gave the Warsaw Community Schools an opportunity to make some progress. Those on the steering committee made a very, very strong declaration that they were going to make AYP, knowing that it would not transcend into a straight-A school corporation. But it did.
“Personally, I would like to thank our teachers, our administrators, our staff, our parents and most importantly our students for their really solid investment in helping with the improvements we’ve realized through the state accountability system,” Hintz said.
Although only one Tippecanoe Valley school, the high school, earned an “A” this year, all of its schools improved over last year except Akron Elementary. Akron earned a “C” this year, but had earned an “A” in 2011 and a “D” in 2010. Mentone Elementary and the middle school also earned “C’s” this year, up from a “D” and “F” respectively in 2011.
Superintendent Brett Boggs said Valley’s district grade improved from an “F” overall in 2011 to a “C” this year.
“To go from an ‘F’ to a ‘C’ is significant improvement,” Boggs said. “For the high school to go from a ‘D’ to an ‘A’ is excellent improvement. We’re very, very pleased with that.”
While also pleased that the middle school’s and Mentone’s grades improved, Boggs said he was puzzled by how a school like Akron can be an “A” school one year and “C” the next.
“That points out that the system by which we’re grading schools has some flaws in it,” Boggs stated.
He said the system discriminates against school corporations with more free and reduced lunch students. Bigger schools have more resources and can achieve higher grades.
Overall, while pleased with the improvements, Boggs said Valley is not yet where it wants to be and is working toward being an “A” corporation.
For the third straight year, local parochial school Sacred Heart has earned an “A” from the state. Principal James Faroh Sr. said the Warsaw-based school was very happy with its grade again this year.
Three of Wawasee’s schools – North Webster Elementary, Milford School and Syracuse Elementary – saw their letter grades drop from “A’s” in 2011 to “C’s” in 2012. Wawasee Middle School remained at a “D,” while the high school improved from a “C” in 2011 to an “A” in 2012.
At Whitko, three of the four schools’ letter grades remained unchanged from last year. In 2011 and 2012, Pierceton Elementary earned a “D,” and South Whitley Elementary and the high school both earned “C’s.” However, the middle school dropped from a “B” in 2011 to a “D” in 2012.
Both of Triton’s schools earned a “C” in 2012. That’s up from a “D” in 2011 for the elementary school, but the same grade for the junior-senior high school.
Two of Manchester’s schools – the elementary and junior-senior high school – both earned “A’s” this year, up from a “B” and “C” respectively in 2011. The intermediate school’s grade improved from a “D” in 2011 to a “C” this year.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett announced during the meeting this morning that 40.9 percent of schools in the state earned “A’s,” 20.1 percent of schools earned “B’s” and 20.3 percent of schools earned “C’s.”
Schools earning “D” or “F” grades totaled 18.6 percent, similar to last year’s percentage and lower than the 2009-10 school year, according to the release.
This year, new metrics using recent advances in measuring student academic performance were used to calculate school grades, according to the press release. At the elementary and middle school level, the Indiana Growth Model factored heavily into the scores of many schools demonstrating progress toward closing the achievement gap or strong overall academic growth. At the high school level, college and career readiness indicators, such as Advanced Placement success and industry certifications, factored into the grades.
Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, the State Board of Education changed labels for school categories based on student performance to easy-to-understand letter grades. This new methodology holds schools and corporations to higher standards and incorporates student academic growth and graduation rates, as well as college and career readiness indicators, the press release states.
Letter grades for high schools are calculated based on performance (Algebra I and English 10 End of Course Assessments), student improvement, graduation rate and college and career readiness indicators. Letter grades for elementary and middle schools are based on English/language arts and Math ISTEP+ performance, participation and improvement as well as student growth.
