Chelsea Schneider Kirk, Post-Tribune
The Indiana Department of Education announced Wednesday the state will roll out a new way to track student achievement, one that will emphasize growth in academic knowledge.
The Student Growth Percentile method, under Indiana's submission to the federal Race to the Top plan, will assess the growth of every student by comparing those at the same level of achievement.
The Race to the Top Fund provides competitive grants for states that foster educational innovation. State officials believe the Student Growth measurement could one day be linked to Annual Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Under the method, a student's growth will be measured using ISTEP scores from one year to the next.
"One day of testing doesn't always tell you what youngsters learn," said Mark Sperling, assistant superintendent of the Merrillville Community School Corp. "Over a period of time looking at ISTEP results, you get a pretty fair idea of whether youngsters learned standards and incorporated that learning into their education."
State officials expect students to learn one year's worth of information regardless of where they fall on the achievement scale. The new method will help track schools that are making strides in increasing student knowledge, said Lauren Auld, spokeswoman for the department of education.
State Superintendent of Education Tony Bennett said many schools now concentrate on getting "bubble" students who are close to passing annual state tests over that hurdle, instead of spending more time and resources on those who score very low.
The state expects all students to grow, no matter where they start.
"Every student is entitled to one year of growth in one year of instruction," Bennett said at a news conference in his Statehouse office.
Under the new system each student's yearly academic growth will be calculated by comparing their progress to others who began at similar levels of achievement, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report