Recognizing Progress

Prior to the federal adoption of No Child Left Behind, Indiana measured progress of Indiana schools (including public and accredited non-public schools). In 2011, the State Board of Education (SBOE) decided to switch from unclear school accountability placement categories (Exemplary Progress, Commendable Progress, Academic Progress, Academic Watch, and Academic Probation) to easy-to-understand letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F).

Even with these easy-to-understand letter grades, traditional public schools could fall into the D or F category for six consecutive years before any intervention was required by law.

In 2015, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law changing the accountability timeline from six years to four years for traditional public schools. With the passage of this new law, traditional public schools are held to the same timeline as public charter schools for the first time. Private schools accepting vouchers still have the shortest accountability timeline of two years. After two years of receiving a D and/or F rating, a voucher school may no longer accept new voucher students.

During this same year, Indiana switched to more rigorous academic standards and assessments for students. This new bar for accountability was developed by a panel of educators, parents, and elected officials with feedback from Hoosiers across the state. Student test scores have seen an expected dip during this transition period. With honest feedback on how students are performing, it will take time to meet the new, higher benchmark.

From 2012 to 20154, the number of ‘F’-rated schools decreased from 144 to 54 and the number of ‘A’-rated schools increased from 856 to 1,188. Starting in 2014, school letter grades saw a slight dip across the board, as Indiana transitioned to stronger standards and a more rigorous state exam.

The passage of SEA 1 in 2011 ended seniority-based layoffs and required each educator (including principals and superintendents) to be evaluated annually. Teachers should now be receiving feedback on how to improve and grow as a professional.

Attracting and retaining great teachers should continue to be a top priority. Once in the classroom, teachers must receive quality support for professional growth and school leaders need flexibility to pay teachers accordingly. Additionally, teachers deserve multiple career pathways which will allow them opportunities to advance professionally without leaving the classroom.

Schools must adopt evaluation models that include student growth data, but the law allows schools the flexibility to create their own evaluation plan, adopt nationally recognized models such as PAR and TAP, adopt the state’s model (RISE), or modify RISE. Local districts may decide things such as how much weight will be given to individual student growth scores, whether or not to include the school’s letter grade as a component of evaluations, and who performs the evaluations. When ISTEP growth scores are available, they must be used, but schools can also choose other measurements of student growth to supplement these scores. For educators who teach subjects not tested on ISTEP, the local district determines which assessments and or projects will be used to measure student growth. In 2016, HEA 1003 prohibited ISTEP scores from being factored into a teacher’s evaluation if the score would negatively impact their ranking.

In the 2013- 2014 school year, 89% of educators were rated in the top two ranking categories: highly effective or effective. 8.8% of educators were not ranked at all for a variety of reasons. In the 2014- 2015 school year, 88% of educators were rated highly effective or effective. 10.2% of educators were not ranked at all for a variety of reasons. When the educators who were not ranked are removed from the calculation, 97.6% (2013- 2014) and 97.9% (2014- 2015) of Indiana’s teacher were rated highly effective or effective.

In 2015, the Indiana State Board of Education contracted with Indiana University to review teacher evaluation plans used by local districts in 2014- 2015 and 2015- 2016 school years. The study looked specifically at objective measures used in teacher evaluation plans and other characteristics of plans statewide. Among other findings, the report showed nearly 1 in 5 districts were not using Indiana Growth Model data in teacher evaluations. The full study may be found here and the presentation given to the State Board of Education may be found here.

Indiana taxpayers spend 53% of the entire state budget, or roughly $8,000,000,000, on K-12 education. During the 2015 legislative session, lawmakers increased K-12 funding by over $470 million - the largest funding increase in our state’s history.

Children are best served when tax dollars fund students- not school buildings. To ensure Indiana is maximizing our investment in educating children, money set aside to educate those students should follow them wherever they are educated.

More than ever before, low and middle income families may access education options that have historically only existed for the elite. Therefore, it is vital that programs like the Tax Credit Scholarship are preserved and expanded. Last year through the generosity of Hoosiers, nearly 9,500 children were granted scholarships that allowed them to be educated at a school of their choice. Since it started in 2009, the demand for the program has grown. In fact, the 9.5M cap for fiscal year 2016 was reached on December 19th, exhausting all available tax credits.

Indiana invested nearly $6.8B in K-12 funding during the 2015- 2016 school year and is expected to invest nearly $7B for the 2016- 2017 school year. This represents a nearly $1B increase over the last ten years and is the largest K-12 funding investment in Indiana’s history. When all K-12 education-related programs are considered, total spending is approximately $8B, or more than half of the entire state budget. While funding has increased over the last ten years, enrollment has remained relatively flat at 1,014,048 students in fiscal year 2007 and 1,055,147 students in fiscal year 2016.

For the 2015- 2016 school year traditional public schools educated 93.5% of the students and received 94.5% of available tuition support dollars. Choice Scholarships (vouchers) were given to 3.1% of students and received 1.9% of available funding. Public charter schools educated 2.5% of students and received 2.7% of the funding and virtual public charter schools educated 0.9% of students and received 0.8% of funding.

It is important to note that public charter schools do not receive property tax dollars like their traditional public school counterparts. In 2015, that equated to a total of $2.7B additional funding, or about $2,758 per student.