Knox Superintendent Explains Corporation’s Varying DOE Grades

Superintendent A.J. Gappa

The Department of Education released every school corporation’s report card this week for the 2011-2012 school year and at the Knox Community School Corporation, the Knox Community High School received an A, the middle school got an F, and the elementary school received a C.

Superintendent A.J. Gappa explains how each school got their grade.

“The scores for the middle school and the elementary school are basically based on their ISTEP tests while the scores at the high school are based on scores on their End of Course Assessment and Math and English/Language Arts, plus the graduation rate and a category called College and Career Readiness,” stated Gappa.

The high school received an A as an average score in the four categories in which they were graded.

“Our particular high school had A’s in the English/Language Arts and Math test taking for End of Course Assessments. They also had an A in the category of College and Career Readiness and a B in the graduation rate. When they added all of those all together, based on the weighted multiplier, it came to be a 3.85 which is an A, according to the State Accountability Report,” said Gappa.

The middle school and elementary schools’ scores, again, are based on the ISTEP scores.

“In actuality, when you looked at the results of the actual tests, the elementary school started with a B and the middle school started with a D. Because the state added a category of growth, which is pretty confusing to a lot of people, they considered both the elementary school and the middle school to show low growth. They docked each of those buildings a point and the grade lowered by one level compared to their ISTEP actual results,” Gappa explained.

Gappa says improvement plans are already in place.

“Three of the buildings got together earlier this summer and developed action plans to improve the learning that’s going on in the classroom,” he said. “As a matter of fact, later this month we plan to update the school board on how the action plans have progressed through the year so far.”