School performance dashboard moves forward with Indiana State Board of Education vote

Hoosiers now know more about how Indiana officials will publicize information on schools' performance across the state. 

The Indiana State Board of Education approved a list of so-called "headline indicators" at its meeting Wednesday as part of the development of a new school performance dashboard.

"Headline indicators" are essentially data points to illustrate student progress in each of the five focus areas of the dashboard. Officials said at the meeting those indicators will be designed to offer someone a quick, overall understanding of how well a school is preparing students for life after high school.

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Ron Sandlin is the Indiana Department of Education's senior director of school performance and transformation. He said the dashboard will also show how the data breaks down by student demographic and socioeconomic groups. 

"We are committed to ensuring that this dashboard illustrates performance – not only of the schools overall – but of particular student groups within a school, to make sure that our systems understand how they are best supporting all learners," he said.

The headline indicators include a range of things from kindergarten readiness for the state's youngest learners, to FAFSA completion for high school seniors. 

The initial version of the dashboard is expected to roll out next fall.

Contact reporter Jeanie at jlindsa@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @jeanjeanielindz.