The Fort Wayne Community School Board passed a resolution by a vote of 6-1 to discontinue using the A-F grading system created by disgraced former State Superintendent Tony Bennett. The South Bend, Indiana, school board is considering the same resolution:

    

    

RESOLUTION OF THE
FORT WAYNE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES TO CEASE RECOGNITION OF ITS SCHOOLS BASED UPON THE BENNETT A-F SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY

WHEREAS, the State of Indiana under former State Superintendent Tony Bennett created an accountability system that assigns a letter grade to schools ranging from A to F (“Bennett A-F System”) purportedly to provide parents a basis for choosing a school for their children; and,

WHEREAS, the letter grade system is based upon student scores on the ISTEP examination without regard to numerous factors that affect those scores, including but not limited to the number of students living in poverty, the number of students learning the English language, the number of students with special needs, and the extent of parental involvement; and,

WHEREAS, the Bennett A-F System ignores factors that the FWCS Board believes are of critical importance to parents selecting a school for their children, including but not limited to the school’s performance in narrowing the performance gap between various groups of students, the overall growth demonstrated by the students in the school, the skill and experience of the school’s building leaders, the attendance rates of its students and staff, awards won by the school’s staff, the extracurricular activities available to students, awards won by the students in the school, the disciplinary data collected for the school; and,

WHEREAS, prior to the adoption of the Bennett A-F System, FWCS adopted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) system of encouraging continuous improvement for its schools and other departments which includes objective measurements that demonstrate improvement consistent with the FWCS Board’s Goals; and,

WHEREAS, the FWCS Board regrets not recognizing the accomplishments of the students and staffs of schools that demonstrated significant growth left unaccounted for under the Bennett A-F System.

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NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

The FWCS Board of School Trustees resolves that it will no longer give public recognition to its schools based solely upon the letter grade assigned to a school under the Bennett A-F System.

The FWCS Board recommends to its Superintendent that FWCS utilize its Balanced Scorecard, district assessment suite and other available measures to develop the criteria for recognizing a school’s continuous improvement and the quality of its instruction.

FWCS Board respectfully urges other school districts in the State of Indiana to adopt this Resolution and, in addition, to develop their own systems of school recognition consistent with this Resolution in order to send a message to Indiana legislators and Indiana’s educational leaders that the strength and quality of school instruction should never be judged on the basis of a single test but rather on the totality of factors described in this Resolution.