Module 1.5 Issue Description
Issue: One of Dr. Bennett's (Indiana Superintendent of Instruction) many proposals is the implementation of an A through F report card system for assessing school achievement.
Currently school performance under Public Law 221 works like this:
Public Law 221 (P.L. 221) is Indiana's comprehensive accountability system for K-12 education. Passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1999 – prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the law aimed to establish major educational reform and accountability statewide. To measure progress, P.L. 221 places Indiana schools into one of five categories based upon student pass rates on state ISTEP+ tests: Exemplary Progress, Commendable Progress, Academic Progress, Academic Watch or Academic Probation.
The following links take you directly to the IDOE school accountability page.
http://www.doe.in.gov/pl221/
For more info. on PL221 and No Child Left Behind: http://www.doe.in.gov/communications/schoolaccountability.html
In the inagural state of education address at Creston Middle School, Dr. Bennett said, "Everyone knows what letter grades mean, so parents and other concerned citizens will be able to both celebrate school success and hold schools accountable."
So what is the conflict here: In summary, many school leaders, teachers, and community members feel that the grading system's transparency will unfairly penalize marginalized schools and districts. On the other hand, proponents of the school grades feel that they will serve as a needed accountability measure that the community can comprehend.
As a non-educator, I am very interested in how this issue will play out. I can sympathize with the teachers' concerns about being "graded", but I also feel that it would be a very good way to determine schools' and teachers' accountability.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 5th grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools and this is a hot topic right now, because the Chicago Tribune just released school report card grades. I do think that report cards are a good thing - because of the accountability factor that it places on schools, but only if they are created and explained with great care and in detail. For example, several factors such as attendance rate and class sizes went into the report cards, not solely test scores. But, when the tribune broke the story, they focused on how many schools had received F's and didn't really make it clear to the public how to use the report cards and what information went into deciding the letter grade. Our CEO, Ron Huberman expressed that the report cards are a work in progress and his goal is for the report cards to include an array of information, including suggestions for how parents can get involved to help their schools improve. I too am very interested to see how this issue will play out!
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to the Tribune story:
http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/tables/cps-scores.html