MCS superintendent critical of state's A-F grades
Seth Slabaugh
MUNCIE, Ind. — School accountability grades released by the state on Wednesday show improvement at Central High School, West View Elementary and East Washington Academy.
The A-F grades for the 2016-17 school year dropped at South View Elementary and Longfellow Elementary compared to the prior year.
The superintendent of MCS is critical of the grading system, calling it primarily a poverty ranking.
Both Northside Middle School and Southside Middle School, as well as Sutton Elementary School, earned the same D grades that they received in 2015-16.
In addition, South View Elementary fell from a C school to a D school, and Longfellow fell from a B school to a D school.
In all, five of the dozen schools at MCS are rated by the state as D schools.
"I don't think these scores have much value," MCS Superintendent Steve Baule told The Star Press. " … they have no value whatsoever except to be tied to poverty rates … You've got to remember that these grades correlate particularly well to poverty rates and the amount of ethnic minorities in the buildings."
Too many children are not kindergarten-ready when they reach Muncie Community Schools, Baule said. The negative impact on each of those kids can last for years, if not a lifetime.
The problem here is so serious that early childhood development has been adopted as a primary economic development strategy by groups including the Muncie Action Plan, the city-county economic development alliance, BY5 and the Ball Brothers Foundation.
According to BY5, 90 percent of brain development occurs between birth and the year five. Reading, singing, talking and playing helps those brains develop, along with good role models.
"Children from poverty, especially generational poverty, have a lot more hurdles to get over, and they often start at a deeper negative," Baule said. "The BY5 organization will tell you that across Delaware County, and particularly Center Township, we don't have a high portion of children who come to school kindergarten ready."
That lowers the likelihood of graduating from high school, graduating from college, earning a strong salary by age 40, and obtaining a full-time job, according to BY5.
"Overall, if you look at our programs, we are doing well," Baule said of MCS. "This is the second year in a row we've had no F schools. Muncie Community Schools is doing a better job academically than it has done historically. We have more scholarship money for our kids, more kids are in advance courses and a significant number are in dual credit courses (earning high school and college credits simultaneously)."
Southside Middle School was an F school during 2012-15. So were Northside Middle School in 2013, Wilson Middle School and Sutton in 2012, and Central and Southside high schools in 2010.
"It's my understanding there were F's every year until I got here," Baule said. "Since then there have been none. That in itself is positive."
Among schools graded as F schools in the latest rankings are those in Anderson, Fort Wayne, Marion, Kokomo, Huntington, Indianapolis, South Bend, Evansville, East Chicago, Michigan City, Lafayette and Hammond.
The A-F Accountability Grade for MCS as an entire district for 2016-17 will be released by the state next month. In each of the previous three years, MCS has been graded as a C school corporation.
The A-F accountability system, according to IDOE, shows how well each school is:
• performing in English/language arts and mathematics
• helping students "catch up," "keep up," or "move up" in English/language arts and math.
• graduating its students within four years and within five years.
• helping students complete things to make them more college ready (for example AP tests, dual credits, and industry certifications).
The accountability system does not show how students are performing in science, social studies, art, music, career and technical education, and world languages, nor does it measure school culture, safety, program offerings, extracurricular offerings, and so forth.
Elsewhere in Delaware County, Delta, Wapahani, Yorktown and Daleville high schools are now all rated as A schools. Delta, Wapahani, and Yorktown all had been B schools the previous year. Daleville was an A school both years. Cowan Junior-Senior High School continued its rating as a B school.
MCS school grades (2015-16 grade listed first, and 2016-17 grade listed second):
Central High School, C to B.
Storer Elementary,* A and A.
Northside Middle, D and D.
Southside Middle, D and D.
Grissom Elementary, C and C.
South View Elementary, C to D.
Longfellow Elementary, B to D.
Mitchell Elementary,* B and B.
North View Elementary, C and C.
Sutton Elementary,* D and D.
East Washington Academy, D to B.
West View Elementary, B to A.
Storer, Mitchell and Sutton elementary schools were closed after the 2016-17 school year.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834 or seths@munncie.gannett.com.