DOE to ask state board to change letter grade of defunct charter school
08/31/2014

 

The Indiana Department of Education will ask the State Board of Education at its meeting this week to change the letter grade of a charter school that was closed after official reports of cheating.  

 

In a memo that will be presented to the state board at its meeting on Wednesday, the department will ask that Flanner House Charter School’s letter grade be changed from an ‘A’ to ‘no grade’.

 

The DOE’s request is based on the fact that the charter school’s 2013 ISTEP scores have been invalidated due to multiple cases of cheating by school staff and administrators. An investigation by the Indiana Department of Education found that staff at the charter school erased and changed students’ answers and provided actual tests in advance in order to obtain higher ISTEP scores.

 

The defunct charter school made one of the largest test score gains in the entire state in 2013 when its ISTEP passing rate jumped 42 points to 95%.

 

It appears that Flanner House Charter School’s A-F records have already been removed from the department’s data site containing school A-F accountability grades. The page for Flanner House simply says “A-F data is not available”.