The ISTEP grades are in, but what do they mean?

Because state legislators approved a “hold harmless” bill, which essentially means failing schools won't be held accountable for their low grades, schools were able to revert back to the 2013-14 grades instead of the most recent — and in many cases worse — marks.

Essentially, the better of the two was the one released to the public Tuesday, according to Greg Parsley, superintendent of the Vincennes Community School Corp.

According to the DOE release, all of the school buildings in the VCSC received an A except one, Tecumseh-Harrison Elementary School, which received a B.

Those are the very same grades the buildings received last year.

“Ours reverted back to 2013-14 data,” Parsley said.

Parsley said the corporation's actual, most recent letter grades were all over the board. He had one building that received a failing grade, another that received an A, and pretty much everything in between, too.

The statewide percentage of students passing both portions of the state ISTEP test last spring was about 53 percent; last year, when students in grades three through eight took an “easier” version of the test, almost 75 percent passed both sections.

At the VCSC, 49 percent of students passed both sections of the test. North Knox fared the same.

And of the three public school corporations, South Knox performed the best, with 71.4 percent of elementary students and 59.9 percent of junior high students passing both sections.

South Knox Elementary School received an A, according to the grades released Tuesday, and the Middle High School received a B. Those are the same grades given to South Knox last year, but superintendent Tim Grove said he expected them to be the same regardless.

Away from his office for the day, he couldn't confirm whether those were old or new grades.

“I just knew we were going to be OK no matter what happened,” Grove said.

North Knox Primary School received an A as did the Intermediate School, the same grades issued last year. The Junior Senior High School, however, was given a C, which is actually down from last year's reports when the Junior Senior High School received a B.

Superintendent Darrel Bobe, also away from his office at a meeting in Indianapolis, didn't know what to make of it.

“To be honest, I didn't give it much thought,” Bobe said, “especially given that they were going to be held harmless. When they say, 'We're going to give you a grade, but we're not going to hold you to it,' it's hard to put a whole lot of emphasis on it. So if they're last year's, fine. If they're this year's, that's fine, too.

“I'm just ready to be done,” he said. “I'm ready to move on with educating our kids. Here we are trying to educate students, and we can't even make sense of what's going on.

“Let's just put it behind us and move on.”

Parsley agreed, but was thankful that qualifying teachers will finally get the pay raises they deserve. Given the letter grades issued Tuesday, most will fall into the effective or highly effective category despite the drop in ISTEP scores.

“We've been operating on the 2013-14 pay scale, so now we can finally get teachers moved up,” Parsley said. “They've already waited too long.

“As for the rest of it, let's just move on. That's the best thing we can do.”

Grove said the letter grades released Tuesday, whether accurate or not, he believes to be reflective of the kinds of public schools located in Knox County.

“When you look at those grades, you think, 'Yeah, we knew that.' And the people in our community knew it, too.

“I know how hard we all work and how seriously we take the education of our kids.”

According to the release issued Tuesday, Rivet High School received a B, while Flaget Elementary School received an A.

The final grades were approved unanimously by the State Board of Education Tuesday morning.

In response to their release, Glenda Ritz, Superintendent of Public Instruction, said while she appreciates legislators' decision to hold the grades harmless, she hopes to see the state move away from such “labeling” altogether.

“I support accountability, but I support accountability that makes sense,” she said in the release.

She goes on to say she looks forward to implementing a new “Student-Centered Accountability System,” which “more accurately reflects the great work happening in our schools and communities every day.”

Slightly more schools received A grades this year, The Associated Press reported, with about 57 percent of some 2,100 public and private schools getting top marks — up from about 54 percent of schools receiving A ratings last year.

The new ratings give an F grade to about 3 percent of schools — down from 4 percent last year.