School Grades Approved, ‘Hold Harmless’ Law a Factor

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The Indiana State Board of Education has approved the A-F letter grades earned by public schools for the 2018-19 school year. The grades take into account the “hold harmless” legislation signed by Governor Eric Holcomb last month.

As a result of the law passed by the Indiana Statehouse at the beginning of the current session, the results of a new standardized test used last year will not negatively affect schools’ accountability grades and teacher evaluations.

The move for the policy followed the release of the inaugural ILEARN exam results, which saw a more than 13% decrease from the previous year’s ISTEP+ exam.

The law requires last year’s grades not to be lower than the 2017-18 school year. The Indiana Department of Education compared the grades between the two years and assigned the letter grade to each school.

The state report card from last year shows 17% of Indiana public school corporations earned As, nearly 56% earned Bs, nearly 23% received Cs. Schools receiving Ds and Fs were less than 1% each.