July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Keep good news in perspective

Editorial

A newspaper friend used to joke that all journalism contests are meaningless and subjective until you win one, then they’re the most important professional yardstick available.
His point: Enjoy it when it happens, but don’t take these things too seriously.
The same could be said of the A received this week by Jay Schools from the State Board of Education.
It’s something to be enjoyed and be proud of, but it needs to be kept in perspective.
For instance, the state’s rules for passing out the letter grades are a little quirky.
Some excellent school corporations in Indiana received a grade of C simply because their performance has been so good that it’s hard to show any further improvement.
And then there’s the fact that standardized testing — the current favorite yardstick of the state’s politicians — only measures how well a student did on a test, not how good a citizen he or she will be or how well-rounded his or her education is.
On top of that, it’s important to keep in mind that ISTEP-Plus scores are of limited value when comparing year-to-year per-formance at specific grades or specific schools. Different kids are moving through the system all the time.
So, sure, we’re proud of the local school corporation’s rating from the state. We’re even prouder of the fact that last year’s test scores were the highest since 2002.
Superintendent Tim Long hit the right note this week when he said, “We don’t want to get caught up in the letter grades. The reality is it’s all about improvement.”
That’s the message to take home from this report card. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
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