Indiana

Doing Better with Less

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I am going to probably shock the lot of you this morning by saying something nice about public education here in Indiana.   The latest round of ISTEP test scores show students improving overall in the state.

According to the Department of Education,  81 percent of students showed improvement in their test scores.

The pass rate was as follows…

• English – 74%.
• Math – 76%.
• Science – 67%.
• Social Studies – 65%.

Indianapolis Public Schools also showed overall increases as well.  What’s most interesting about all this is that scores are up even though the education establishment screamed bloody murder when the test was moved to the Spring.   And not only are schools showing improvement, they are doing it with less money.

Remember, the budget cuts started last year and schools said the quality of instruction would suffer.  How can the instruction suffer if test scores are going up?

Now granted, one year does not a trend make but to make progress with fewer resources is not a bad place to be.  Maybe it’s not money that makes a good school, but how well you do your job and what’s expected of you?

What a concept.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on June 17, 2010 (boomark / email).