ISTA encourages members to attend state board regional meetings
02/17/2018

The Indiana State Board of Education (SBOE) will again be changing its process for assigning letter grades to schools. Under proposed rules, student test scores would be given greater weight. A chart prepared by the SBOE shows that the growth component is proposed to be eliminated for high school accountability purposes.

If approved, Indiana’s new school accountability rule would go into effect next school year (2018- 2019).

The SBOE will be holding community meetings around the state for the public to offer comments on the proposed rule changes.

ISTA has significant concerns regarding the diminished weight that growth will carry in the accountability calculations and the phase out of growth metrics for high school.

ISTA has been a strong supporter of growth, at least equal to if not more than proficiency (test scores), as it provides all students an opportunity to demonstrate learning progress irrespective of their backgrounds and challenges.

We believe that putting more emphasis yet again on test scores would be a decision that is detrimental to students, parents, educators and communities. Punitive measures negatively label students.

ISTA encourages members to attend a meeting near them to tell the SBOE to reconsider placing so much weight on test scores.

Anyone unable to make a meeting can submit comments to sboe_comment@sboe.in.gov. Comments must be submitted by April 4, 2018.