COLUMBUS, Ind. — Grades for local school corporations and schools have been released by the Indiana Department of Education, but show little change due to the state’s “hold harmless” provision.
State education officials said canceling the spring statewide testing directly affected the ability of the state to calculate the letter grades for the 2019-2020 school year.
Because of this, the state enacted the hold harmless provision, which means that a school or school corporation cannot receive a lower A-F grade than what each received for the 2017-2018 or 2018-2019 school year.
Schools’ grades were also given a hold harmless provision in 2019, due to disappointing Indiana Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN) exam scores. Test results and participation rates are among the factors involved in scoring schools.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. and the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation received the same grades for 2019-2020 as they did the previous year, as did area private schools.
The overall grade for BCSC was B. Four schools in BCSC had “C” grades, the lowest grade given among local schools. Those schools were Clifty Creek, Schmitt, Taylorsville elementary schools and Central Middle School. The remainder were rated either “A” or “B.”
The overall grade for the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. was “B.” Both Hope Elementary and Hauser Jr./Sr. High School received a B grade as well.
For more on this story, including a graphic showing all school grades, see Tuesday’s Republic.
