State Board Will Attempt To Keep Pace With A-F Grades Wednesday

Following a week of confusion surrounding Indiana’s A-F grading system earlier this month, the State Board of Education will focus primarily on school accountability at their monthly meeting Wednesday.

Earlier this month, state education officials raised a red flag and asked legal experts to weigh in on whether or not they had invalidated the state’s A-F letter grading system. The issue at hand was whether or not the State Board had followed the letter of the law in transitioning from an old A-F system to the new version set to take effect for 2016 grades.

State Board members Byron Ernest (left) and Steve Yager talk during a break in the board’s August meeting. (Photo Credit: Rachel Morello/StateImpact Indiana)

The state’s attorney general has since said everything is fine, and the current system is still valid.

Despite the confusion, the board is expected to vote to direct the Department of Education and state Superintendent Glenda Ritz to issue grades for the 2014-15 school year, including amendments for schools with atypical configurations.

The calculation of those grades will be delayed. That’s because of issues current test vendor CTB encountered in grading new technology-enhanced portions of the 2014 ISTEP+ test – a main factor in the state’s rating system. The company informed the board of those problems at their meeting in August.

Schools likely will not receive grades until December.

CTB will not be the state’s test vendor any longer – as of the current school year, that job now falls to British testing company Pearson. The board will receive an update on the transition between the two companies at Wednesday’s meeting.

Also on the agenda are votes for recommending new rules for reporting school discipline data and a discussion about Indiana’s new high school diploma requirements.

The board meets Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. You can watch a live-stream of the meeting here.