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West Noble administrators outline Indiana's new school accountability model and call year one a baseline
Summary
District leaders told the board the state's new accountability framework (approved March 4 but awaiting final signatures) will rate students individually on academics, attendance and new diploma indicators; staff warned data, Skyward integration and unclear attendance thresholds complicate planning for this school year, dubbed "year zero."
West Noble School Corporation administrators briefed the board on the state of Indiana's newly approved school accountability model and described the current year as a baseline "year zero" that will nonetheless be published publicly.
A district presenter said the model, approved by the state on March 4 and expected to be signed by the attorney general and governor in May, expands evaluation beyond standardized-test performance to include career and postsecondary readiness, diploma seals, communication and collaboration metrics, work ethic (regular attendance) and civic, financial and digital literacy. "It is approved by the state of Indiana, but it still needs to be signed by the attorney general," the presenter said.
The presenter and Amanda explained how the model changes by grade band: in early grades (K'3) IREAD and ILEARN reading/mathematics remain central, and success indicators (for example, accelerated literacy or WIDA progress for English learners) will add points; grades 4'6 add additional success indicators tied to social studies and science proficiency; and seventh graders must complete a graduation plan that the state will only count when signed by a parent. At the high-school level, the model weights a 10th-grade and 12th-grade letter grade to form a high-school grade, with SAT now a standalone 10% indicator and the federal graduation-rate measure accounting for another 10%.
Administrators emphasized implementation challenges. Because many indicators are tracked at the individual-student level across the district's roughly 2,100 students, staff said the new model will require significant data collection and verification. "That's a lot of data to track," the presenter said, noting district expectations that Skyward, the student information system, will need to be reprogrammed to produce the new reports but that the vendor typically requires a year to implement such back-end functionality.
Officials also flagged timetable constraints: ILEARN testing is ongoing and final scores are not expected until August, while some indicators and percentage thresholds (including the exact definition of "regular attendance") remain unspecified. The presenter advised the board to maintain internal tracking and be prepared to contest state-calculated results if discrepancies arise: "Make sure you're tracking your own data because if you have a discrepancy and the state comes back lower and you can prove to them, 'Look, I've tracked all of this,' they're more inclined to review it," the presenter said.
Why it matters: administrators said the new model will publicly assign ratings this year even though officials call it a baseline year; unclear formulas and unfinalized benchmarks limit the district's ability to plan fully for next year. The district plans to accelerate Skyward work over the summer and keep the board informed as state guidance and data become available.
Next steps: staff said they will continue configuring Skyward, share projected ILEARN results when the state issues them (projected end of May/June for projections and final scores in August), and return to the board with more detail before the official ratings are published.
