There seems to be a new controversy each week among the alleged adults in charge of our children’s education. But if you can fight through the newest spat, bits of wisdom are buried in the latest war on words.
At issue — again — is the state’s A-F grading system for grading schools.
We fully support the idea of holding schools and teachers accountable. No one wants to see taxpayer money funneled into schools and systems that are failing. And, clearly, some are failing.
At the same time, it’s clear that students’ success depends upon individual students and parents as well as teachers and administrators. Judging the success of a school is not as simple as calculating the profit of a business.
This week, for the third year in a row, education leaders will try to decide on a new rating system for schools. It will go before the State Board of Education Friday.
The new approach, approved by a bipartisan Accountability System Review Panel last week, would grade schools on a 100-point scale. In part, the system will be based on how students perform on standardized tests, judging them from one year to the next. It would also expand testing to first and second grades while potentially lowering the number of overall tests students take throughout their school years.
According to news reports, it’s not clear what the board will do with the new proposal. The board is controlled by Republicans. They’ve often clashed with state school Superintendent Glenda Ritz, a Democrat.
The (Munster) Times reports that Daniel Elsener, who’s engaged in a power struggle with Ritz over control of the board, has said he’s inclined to stick with the grading formula put in place by former Superintendent Tony Bennett, even though lawmakers have mandated that it be replaced. The Bennett system, you might recall, came under fire after The Associated Press reported Bennett altered it to benefit a campaign donor’s charter school.
The voters had weighed in before the lawmakers did. Ritz beat Bennett, and she campaigned against the A-F system.
Now for the words of wisdom.
House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, said the simplest thing would be for Indiana to stop trying to label schools with A-F grades.
“People will never fully trust grades doled out by politicians for political purposes,” Pelath said. “The grades are for rewarding friends and punishing the weak.”
As long as the grades are perceived in that fashion, he’s right.
Other wise words came from Mark Vice, who is in charge of curriculum for the North Lawrence schools. Months ago Vice suggested the state model was simply too complex, unworkable and impractical.
What schools can measure, and what students can strive for, he said, is mastery of a subject. The state already has established standards. So we can know when a child has mastered spelling or algebra, history or chemistry.
More importantly, teaching mastery of a subject is what society expects and needs from its schools.