North Judson-San Pierre Superintendent Discusses State Grades

North Judson-San Pierre Superintendent Lynn Johnson

The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation may have gotten a decent grade from the state, but Superintendent Lynn Johnson said they’re not quite satisfied. The corporation as a whole received a B grade from the state, while the elementary school received an A, the middle school a B, and the high school a C. On top of that, Johnson said the school received value added for growth in language arts and math, and while it was a good report card, she feels the model still needs work.

“So it was a positive report, even though there are some flaws in the model itself, and hopefully they’re working on that. The growth is compared to peer groups as opposed to individual student growth. We have, as superintendents, teachers, and many educators have expressed concerns about that, so hopefully some of those concerns would be addressed. We have made that known, that we are not comfortable with the model,” Johnson said.

Last year, Johnson said the corporation received an A, so the corporation’s grade as a whole dropped by one letter grade. However, she said that four years ago the school was on academic watch, so they have been steadily improving, and for that she is pleased.

“What I think I’m most pleased about is that when we look at our individual student growth, even though that’s not the way they may look at it at the state, our kids are making some excellent progress. We closed our gap with our free and reduced, and also with our special ed population, which is very important. Socioeconomically, that gap has closed. The other thing, at some levels, we are above the state average. So we have made some very nice progress and we’re happy with that, but certainly the job is not done,” Johnson said.

Johnson said North Judson-San Pierre schools will continue to strive to improve each school.