Indiana’s new student performance website will launch without schools’ A-F grade

A new state website that draws together a wide range of education data to track achievement at K-12 schools, districts and among Hoosier students is almost ready for the public. 

The site created by the Indiana Department of Education is intended to show how school performance goes beyond a single test score. The site will offer an explanation of how students are fairing in particular focus areas — like third graders’ low reading achievement and sixth graders' struggling to meet math goals — and provide tools for users to examine years worth of data points on student groups and individual schools.

The first version of the dashboard is expected to go live next week, Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said. It will include data from Indiana’s traditional public and charter schools, along with accredited non-public schools.

The site, known as Indiana GPS – Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed – dashboard, will be regularly updated with data and functions based on feedback from school leaders and the public, Jenner said. 

Lawmakers last year required the department to create and launch a website with longitudinal data tracking school performance by July 2024. The state’s current K-12 webportal, INview, does not provide more than a single year of data for most metrics, such as a school’s enrollment or students’ academic growth on the ILEARN exam..

When the new website goes public, it will not include the state accountability A-F letter grade for schools or districts, Jenner said. The controversial performance system was altered and paused numerous times in recent years due to changes in statewide assessments and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a law assigning schools no letter grade for the 2021-2022 school year. Jenner said legislation to address A-F is expected to be introduced in the Statehouse session starting next month.

“What you're going to see this coming session is hopefully a robust discussion on ‘how should it look in the future?’ How can we best set up an environment where we're really focused on improving our schools,” she said during a briefing with media.

Jenner said if the accountability statue is not changed, the new dashboard would eventually include the school letter grades.

In 2021, the state removed all formal consequences from the accountability model for when a school received consecutive years of an F rating.

Jenner said parents and the public will be able to provide feedback on the new dashboard after it goes live.

Contact WFYI education editor Eric Weddle at eweddle@wfyi.org or call (317) 614-0470. Follow on Twitter: @ericweddle.