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Administrator: attendance and "Student Success Indicators" will reshape Centerville-Abington school grades
Summary
An administrator briefed the board on Indiana's new K'0 accountability system, saying attendance will be prioritized, Student Success Indicators (SSIs) can substantially boost student contributions to school grades, and the initial A band will be 85'00; the board raised concerns about data uploads and transparency.
An administrator told the Centerville-Abington Community Schools board that the state's forthcoming K'0 accountability framework will prioritize attendance and expand so-called Student Success Indicators (SSIs), which can meaningfully raise a student's contribution to school grades.
"Attendance is going to be a priority," the administrator said during a detailed briefing that covered grade bands, SSIs and operational implications. The administrator explained that SSIs include attendance rates, passing early-reading assessments (iRead), growth percentiles, work-based learning hours, AP or dual-credit completion and diploma seals. "Now for each student, they could get up to 3 SSIs," the administrator said, adding that an SSI could increase a student's grade by a substantial percentage in some cases.
The administrator outlined examples and timelines: for K', passing iRead is a central SSI; in grades 4— the system considers proficiency and growth; in high school, SSIs may be earned by meeting PSAT/SAT benchmarks, earning dual credits or accumulating work-based learning hours. The district will also need to track credit thresholds by grade (for example, by the end of ninth grade students should have 10 credits) and make adjustments to course scheduling and credit recovery to ensure students can meet SSIs.
The district's planned response includes handbook changes (attendance thresholds were already amended) and changes to course scheduling, credit recovery and work-based learning pathways. The administrator warned that some calculation details are handled by an external vendor and remain opaque: "A lot of the calculations that they are doing are being sent to a separate company that's going to be doing the calculations," they said, noting the board should expect data uploads multiple times per month and anticipate operational work to collect and format individual-student data.
Board members asked operational questions about who will upload data and how unique student-level records will be maintained. The administrator said much of the required information is already in PowerSchool and that the district expects an initial published grade ("year 0") in October or November of next year that will still be visible to the public even if the state calls it a baseline year.
The presentation concluded with both concern and cautious optimism: the administrator said the district has taken steps on pathways and handbooks to prepare, but cautioned that some calculation details remain unclear until the vendor'run calculations are published.
