Board members Michelle Dumbsky and Jeff Mescal and I attended an all-day meeting in Indianpolis with State Superintendent Tony Bennett on Monday. Much of the session was devoted to boardsmanship and the necessity of setting goals and allowing those goals to guide how money is spent in the school corporation particularly in these challenging economic times.
Dr. Bennett lauded the Indiana Growth Model of which he is very proud. He believes that it may be adopted as the national model. It is certainly a step in the right direction. However, it is still has a norm- referenced base as opposed to measuring on a criterion base. Since it is norm-referenced, students still have a baseline to meet before their growth counts for the school. Struggling schools find that problematic.
If you have not yet reviewed the Growth Model for grades 3-8, please check out the Helpful Links section.
