Local school leaders question grading system following Bennett revelations

Schneider said the system has always been problematic for him, and reports published Tuesday that former Indiana state Superintendent Tony Bennett and his staff changed standards last September to improve the grade of a top Republican donor’s school further proves the system is not transparent.

Emails obtained by The Associated Press showed Bennett and his advisers worked to change Christel House Academy’s mark from a C to an A. Now Florida’s Education Commissioner, Bennett has denied wrongdoing and said the formula changes were directed at other institutions as well.

A national school accountability leader, Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios, believes, though, that Bennett should resign from his Florida position; and Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long has since called for an annual outside audit of the grading system.

The A to F accountability grades were implemented at the start of the 2011-12 school year, and are designed to measure student academic growth, graduation rates and college and career readiness. In a statement by the DOE on Tuesday, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said she is committed to strengthening the system.

“However, accountability only works when the people making decisions are both fair and transparent,” Ritz said. “That is why I worked with the General Assembly to include language in a new state law that will allow us to create a stronger accountability system.”

Politics has no business in school house, and the route of someone’s personal choices is not the correct way, Schneider said.

“There’s way too much power given to the DOE and the state superintendent of schools,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious when Dr. Bennett was in charge he was all for vouchers, he was all for the privatization of our Indiana schools, and when you have that kind of biased opinion then you certainly have the grounds for something like this to take place. And as far as being superintendent of a public school and a professional educator myself, it’s just very disappointing that a professional educator would get involved in this type of behavior. It’s certainly not the kind of example you want from someone that’s leading the state’s Department of Education as superintendent of public instruction.”

Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. school board president Sally Becker believes in the value of standardized testing for both student growth and measurement, but she does not believe that alone or that the A-F grading system is enough.

“Based on what I know, I think that the A-F system is very limited and limiting,” Becker said. “(And) based on what I do know, it would appear that he (Bennett) became politicized by a big funder.”

EVSC Superintendent David Smith declined to comment on Bennett’s actions or how the school grading system works.

Schneider understands the need for educators to be held accountable, however, the ISTEP assessment is not the “end-all-to-be-all” to measure that. “There’s a whole lot more things that go on in a child’s education than just test scores,” he said. “So I do think we’re out of whack as far as placing too much emphasis on test scores.”

Metropolitan School District of Mount Vernon Superintendent Tom Kopatich agreed that accountability is needed — what schools are doing, why and how money is being spent — but he’s not a firm believer in the A-F grades or that ISTEP should be a major part of that.

“There are different things that affect our corporation in Mount Vernon that may not affect other corporations,” Kopatich said. “And there are corporations like ourself, we’re out there trying things with technology, doing different things. Taking that risk, taking that chance that we feel is best for children, and it may not fall into that mold, but we think it’s best for children. And I think public schools overall, that’s what we tried to push is what is best for the students.”

Mark Lichtenberg, president of the Evansville Teachers Association and former instrumental music teacher at Thompkins Middle School, said he’s heard criticisms and problems with the way A-F accountability grades have been calculated since the grading system was implemented.

“The news from yesterday and what’s in the paper today (Tuesday), it just goes to show you that there’s more than just a few problems with that system,” Lichtenberg said. “I know that as the system evolved there were changes that were taking place, and I think everyone was pretty much aware of that. To see the documentation that there was perhaps some eleventh hour changing of the rules to benefit a particular school, that’s disappointing, but maybe not surprising.”

Lichtenberg said teachers are trained to use multiple measures to assess student learning to ensure each individual child is being taught in a way that suits his specific needs, but “these so-called education reforms” typically only use a single measure for evaluation.

Education officials and families deserve answers and a process of accountability “devoid of political leanings,” Schneider said, because now there are many unanswered questions, including if other schools in the state received special treatment.

“I hope Mr. (Jon) Gubera (Indiana’s then-grading director) will come out and make some comments on this and try to explain what actually the DOE did to get that charter school from a C to an A, what adjustments were made.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.