Most of Indiana's schools received better grades under the state's rating system than they did based on new federal standards, according to 2018 A-F grades released Wednesday.
Most schools have two grades this year. One grade is the usual annual rating from the state, which is mainly based on test scores and how much scores improve. These ratings can trigger intervention for schools receiving F grades several years in a row.
The other grade, which is new this year, comes from new federal standards under the Every Student Succeeds Act. This rating looks at how public schools serve students of color, students from low-income families, English learners, and students with disabilities.
The state measured schools more generously than the federal standards: Nearly two-thirds of schools received As or Bs under the Indiana system. About a third of schools received a higher letter grade in the state system than under federal standards.
Most schools didn’t see a change in their state grade from last year, a trend that continues because test scores remain largely stagnant.
New schools and schools that join the Indianapolis Public Schools innovation network can opt to be graded by the state for three years based only on how much their test scores improve—a measure known as growth—without factoring in passing rates.
Schools largely received lower grades for how they educated students of color, students with disabilities, students from low-income families, and those learning English as a new language than for how they educated white students. Nearly half of those graded for the performance of students with disabilities were rated F, and almost one-third received Fs for the performance of their black students. By contrast, of the schools serving white students, only two percent were rated F for those students’ performance.
A searchable database to determine each Indiana school's grades can be found here.
Chalkbeat is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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