The grades were delayed at the SBOE’s Oct. 15 meeting when several schools voiced concerns that their results were incorrectly calculated. Some schools were not given credit for students completing advanced classes.
The board postponed approving grades until Tuesday’s meeting so the Indiana Department of Education could evaluate those concerns.
Monroe County Community School Corporation schools received mostly A’s and B’s. Bloomington High School North and South both received A grades, as did Tri-North and Batchelor ?middle schools.
Ten of MCCSC’s 14 elementary schools received A or B grades.
Highland Park Elementary improved its grade from an F in 2013 to a B this year, while Fairview Elementary received an F for the third year in a row.
If a school receives an F for six years in a row, the state has the option to take over that school.
Seventy percent of Fairview students were not reading at grade level at the beginning of the year, a ccording to a Jan. 14 Indiana Daily Student article.
The school also had the lowest ISTEP pass rate in MCCSC, according to IDOE data, with 44.9 percent of students passing the language arts and math tests in 2014.
Accountability grades are based on students’ improvement on standardized tests as well as school rates of college and career readiness.
About 53 percent of schools graded received an A, a jump from the about 45 percent of schools receiving the same grade last year.
The number of schools receiving an F dropped from 5.5 percent in 2013 to 4.2 percent this year, according to data released by the IDOE.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz released a statement praising Indiana schools.
“I want to thank Indiana’s educators, administrators, parents and most importantly, students for their countless hours of work over the last academic year,” she said in the release. “This data shows significantly increased performance for our schools, particularly in schools that have been lower performing in prior years.”
