INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana schools will be tasked with improving high school graduation rates and increase testing proficiency as part of new guidelines the Indiana Department of Education will submit to the federal government.
Per the guidelines of the new Every Student Succeeds Act recently passed by Congress, states are now responsible for setting their own goals with regards to school accountability and student achievement. While the U.S. Department of Education gives some guidelines, there is a great deal of flexibility for states to tailor goals to individual needs.
On Monday, the state took a first swing at setting some of those goals during a meeting of the Accountability Advisory Committee. The 19-member committee tackled graduation rates and testing proficiency first while saving multiple discussions for high schools and middle schools for a later date. All four scheduled meetings are geared towards the state's overall accountability plan, which will tell the feds what the state expects from its schools, students and teachers.
David Smith, superintendent of the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp., is on the committee. Hesees the panel as an opportunity for education leaders and lawmakers to take advantage of the new flexibility ESSA provides.
"I hope that we allow our schools, that are very diverse throughout the state, to have the flexibility necessary to show growth," Smith said.
Smith said the discussion at the first meeting encouraged him.
The committee will eye a 90 percent graduation rate six years from the start of ESSA regulations. Currently, ESSA provides for an 18-month transition period once state regulations are accepted. Indiana's current statewide graduation rate is 85 percent.
The committee spent a lot of time on the proficiency requirements that will be determined, for now, by ISTEP and then whatever test replaces it. Similar to the graduation rate, the federal government requires some sort of goal after a period of six years. Committee members did not reach a consensus on the best approach, but agreed they wanted to focus on decreasing the number of non-proficient students. State Superintendent Glenda Ritz said the state could look at making incremental goals on a year-to-year basis so schools have a chance to see how they are doing.
Committee members also expressed a desire to set specific goals for schools based on the current A - F grading system, meaning the goals for an "A" school would be different than for a "D" school.
All proposed rules will need to be approved by the Indiana State Board of Education before they are sent to the U.S. DOE. The accountability committee will meet again in September, October and November.