Panel supports scraping Indiana school grades

Associated Press

TOM DAVIES,Associated Press

Updated: Feb 20, 2013 7:07 PM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A legislative committee has backed repealing the A-F grading scale for Indiana's schools and having the state Board of Education develop a new system for tracking school improvement.

The unanimous vote by the Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee on Wednesday came after new Democratic state schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said that she believes the system is flawed and inconsistent.

Several educators testified about instances where their schools had consistently high student test scores but the schools received low grades because students hadn't shown enough improvement.

Ritz criticized the A-F system during her campaign last year in which she defeated Republican Tony Bennett. He had backed the school grades that were issued for the first time in 2011.

The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

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