What's in a grade?

The Indiana Department of Education released its grades for school corporations Wednesday morning, but the release did not explain the variables or calculations that created the grades.

DOE spokesman Daniel Altman, however, shared the rational Wednesday afternoon:

• A corporation is essentially treated as a combined school with an elementary component, a high school component, and an overall weighted average of the two for the final corporation grade.

• The corporation grades are not a sum of the school grades. Students can be included in the corporation grade that were not included in school calculations. For example, a student may be enrolled in school 1 for 90 days and school 2 for 90 days. The student is not included in performance calculations for either school 1 or 2 because the 162 minimum enrollment days was not met. However, corp A (which contains school 1 and 2) is accountable for this student because the student was enrolled in the corporation for 180 days.

• Corporations proficiency cannot exceed 1 percent ISTAR proficiency and 2 percent IMAST proficiency unless an exemption is granted per USDOE guidelines. Students must be removed from the proficiency count if the caps are exceeded and an exemption is not granted.

Learn more in the Wednesday, Jan. 15, News-Banner.