Tweaked state grade system tougher, but fair?

• Reprints

Isabel Zepeda (left) and Kaylee Wedel, both 12, check their work as they use iPads to review for an upcoming algebra quiz in their 7th-grade class at Hobart Middle School in Hobart, Ind. Thursday October 20, 2011. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 11, 2012 10:00PM

A sample of how local schools would have performed last year had they been Graded by a new model just approved on Wednesday shows mixed results, with more high schools earning an A but more Fs and Ds overall.

According to information released by Tony Walker, a local representative to the Indiana State Board of Education, seven area high schools would have earned an A instead of the C they received under the old grading model. Those include high schools in Munster, Chesterton, Merrillville, Kankakee Valley, Hobart, Highland, Munster and Valparaiso.

Several high schools had complained about the C grades because they were capped at the level after they did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress goals, which are tied to federal No Child Left Behind requirements. However, Indiana was one of 10 states granted on Thursday a waiver from NCLB, meaning Hoosier schools no longer have to include AYP in how they calculate a school’s grade. The new grading system, adopted by ISBOE, replaces NCLB to assess how schools are improving.

Although the reworking of grades for 2011 is an estimation of how schools did last year under the new system, Munster High School Principal Steven Tripenfeldas said he was not only happy with his school getting a perfect score of 4 but added that he wished the Indiana Department of Education had used the new system to grade schools this school year instead of the old model.

“The good thing is I think they’ve got it better now,” he said.

It makes sense that area high schools appear to benefit by the new grading system, Tripenfeldas said, because they include more factors than just two tests.

For instance, high schools get credit for students who do well in Advanced Placement classes, International Baccalaureate programs and others that help students earn college credits in high school. A school’s graduation rate also is a factor.

Standards are higher

According to the data, Lake Central High School, Portage High School and Whiting High School would have increased from a C to a B.

However, the news wasn’t good for everyone. Lake Ridge Schools’ Hosford Park Elementary School and Hammond’s Lafayette Elementary both earned an A under the old system, but the estimation shows they would have earned an F under the new system. Two Gary Community School Corp. elementaries — Marquette Elementary School and Webster Elementary School — would have lost their A grade and received an D instead.

Lake Ridge Superintendent Sharon Johnson-Shirley said she didn’t think the new system was fair to urban schools whose students already start with problems those in suburban districts don’t have.

“I believe students should show growth, but we’re not on an even playing field,” Johnson-Shirley said, adding that her teachers often have to deal with students who don’t even know how to read.

She also disputed the graduation number that was used in the estimation, arguing it was wrong and should have been higher, which would have helped to increase the district’s grade.

Johnson-Shirley also sent a letter from Vic Smith, part the not-for-profit Indiana Coalition for Public Education, which argued that elementary and middle schools were not given enough credit under the new grading system for showing improvement in the number of students passing math and English standards.

“When Johnny tests 12 scale scores below passing one year and only two scale scores below passing the next year, he has shown growth, even though he has failed both times,” Smtih said.

ISBOE member Walker said, however, that the new system was made to be tougher than the old grading system because the state had to prove to the federal government it was up to par if not more rigorous than NCLB. Otherwise, he said, the federal government wouldn’t have granted Indiana the waiver.

“Let’s be clear that this is a heightened level of accountability,” he said.

That bore out overall, a the number of schools that received an A grade would have dropped from 79 to 46 under the new system. Schools with a D would have increased by one to 19, while schools with an F would have increased from 10 to 23.

Under the new system, 43 schools would have earned a B, compared to the 15 that did, and 29 would have earned a C, compared to 38 that did.

At a district level, the only one that would have seen an increase was Valparaiso Community Schools, going from a B to an A. According to the data, 14 would have seen a grade drop. Lake Ridge would have gone from a B to an F, and River Forest Community School Corp. would have dropped from an A to a D.