Kyle Stokes at Impact Indiana has a post reporting that Gov. Pence wants to keep issuing the A-F grades that former Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett tampered with.
The problem is that these grades lack all credibility. There was always skepticism about the metrics behind those grades. Now that there is a history of rigging the system to make sure favored schools get good grades; that skepticism has proven justified. Before continuing with the charade of “accountability,” the State should announce just what it is they intend to measure, announce the metrics, and collect data for a period of time to determine whether the measurements, in fact, reliably reflect whatever it is they are supposed to reflect. You know, hypotheses, repeatability, peer review; all that good stuff.
Using a one dimensional measurement to reflect the quality of something so complex and multi-layered as a school system is ludicrous. Then they boil it down to an A-F scheme in which everyone thinks they know exactly what that means when that’s not the case at all. Actual research in Florida (which can be replicated in our own state database online) shows it means very little from the standpoint of educational process. When some folks from Central Florida University examined their own system carefully a number of years ago, they found out (through a multiple regression analysis) that grades were best predicted through nonschool variables. That means the grades had very little to do with school qualities and a great deal to do with the characteristics of the students who attended those schools. This system has very little to do with evaluation that leads to improvement. It’s a fraud from start to finish, instituted by demagogues.