A-F school accountability grades could die on technicality

The agency, run by Democrat Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, believes the rule governing the issuance of the grades to schools each year expired in November.

“What we’re doing is our normal due diligence on rule-making that we do every year,” spokesman Daniel Alt­man said. “It gets very technical.”

He acknowledged that the agency has reached out to Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office to get a legal opinion.

A department document obtained by The Journal Gazette says that no active A-to-F model currently exists, which “creates legal issues by calculating grades when there is not administrative rule in place.”

“The superintendent has tried four or five times in the last three years to negate accountability, so I’m not surprised there would be another effort,” Indiana State Board of Education member Cari Whicker said. “But it’s a stretch.”

Under Indiana law – and a waiver from certain federal education regulations – Indiana public schools and schools using state-paid vouchers must be placed into A-to-F categories every year, largely based on how students perform on the ISTEP+ test and a few other factors.