Indiana’s state board of education voted Wednesday to alter the statewide accountability system so that schools get more points for student growth on the state’s standardized test, according to the Indianapolis Star.
Currently, schools can get a higher grade on the state’s A-F report card for having more students score proficient on the exams, but don’t get as much credit for having students making gains on the exam.
Indiana has had several issues with its ISTEP exam, and the state’s legislature voted this year to toss the decades-old test and replace it with a new one. Several districts’ scores sank during the state’s transition from paper to online tests last year, which many blamed on a series of technical errors. In one of his first moves this year, Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, decoupled the exam’s 2015 results from teachers’ evaluations in January.
As I wrote about in the March 16 issue, lawmakers in a number of states are bolting to change their accountability systems now that the Every Student Succeeds Act gives states more flexibility in how they evaluate their schools and intervene in the lowest-performing schools.
in Arizona this month passed legislation that would provide students with a “menu” of standardized tests.