IDOE's proposed A-F model critiqued at Marion public hearing

Students who achieve positive movement also have the opportunity to earn bonus points, which would factor into the district's accountability grade. However, many school officials criticized the model's scale for rewarding pass plus students that achieve positive movement at a higher rate than pass or did not pass students who exhibited similar growth.

"This model seems to reward pass plus students at a higher rate than did not pass students," said Brad Lindsay, superintendent of Marion Community Schools. "We believe it should be the opposite, if not the same, in terms of growth."

Marion school board president Scott Murphy added, "What I would like to see would be a level playing field where growth is measured individually and is rewarded equally."

Many Marion community members also spoke during the public hearing, including Rev. Shonda Gladden, Ann Vermilion from Marion General Hospital and City Council President Joselyn Whitticker.

"All lives matter. We have seen success here in Marion but if we go by your model, we will not see success and we will be considered a failure," Whitticker said. "We believe in our school and we believe in our children."

Educators from across the region also attended the hearing on Thursday morning at Marion High School. Dorothea Irwin, director of Professional Learning for Kokomo schools, Laura Cain, assistant to the superintendent for Strategic Initiatives for Fort Wayne Community Schools, Brent Lehman, superintendent for North Adams Community Schools, and Doug Ballinger, administrator at Lakeview Christian School, all spoke at the hearing.

"If a fourth grade students scores a 571 on the ISTEP and then as a fifth grade student on the fifth grade ISTEP scores a 571, why is that not growth?" Lehman said. "That's a different test, a harder test. A student who scores the same score on a harder test must have growth somewhere."

Several of those who spoke at the hearing also addressed the challenges of educating children in areas with a high poverty rate as opposed to schools in more affluent communities.

Marion school board member Aaron Vermilion said that within the more affluent communities, 70-80 percent of students come to school prepared to learn whereas students from impoverished backgrounds may require more time to reach proficiency.

"Those kids can learn and they will learn. Poverty in itself is not an obstacle to learning," he said. "We cannot give up points for teaching kids that come to us at a different level than they do at a different school system. We still have to reward where we're making movement at all levels."

John Butcher, president of the Marion Teachers Association, added, "For children in poverty, teaching and educating those children is a huge task and the model seems to point out that we are keeping the disadvantaged at a disadvantage."

Brad Oliver, a member of the Indiana State School Board of Education, attended the hearing and said the public comments were very helpful.

"We've had a panel looking at data for the last 18 months and the rule that the Board has sent out for public comment is the result of that work, so it's important to hear from them," Oliver said. "One of the things the panel was looking at was how to make this thing more equitable. Comments here today tend to suggest they're not seeing that. What I heard today was they're particularly concerned with lower performing schools not being rewarded for as much growth as a high performing school and that's certainly something I want to go back and take a harder look at."

Public comments on the A-F accountability model can still be submitted online to the State Board until March 13, 2015.