The Indiana State Board of Education approved a new school accountability grading system Wednesday. Schools can expect a new letter grade later this year showing how well they serve students.
After a five-year pause on issuing A-to-F grades, this year marks the first time the state will resume the practice. The new grading model is now designed to emphasize what students accomplish rather than penalizing schools for what they don’t.
Indiana’s Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said the model intends to take the student’s entire educational experience into account.
“What we really worked hard to do in this model is ensure that every single child counts and that it's not just one test score on one day that defines their child,” Jenner told reporters after the board meeting. “It's really looking at the child's abilities and talents and assets and also areas that we can support and help them improve.”
The board, which is entirely appointed, unanimously approved the new grading system. Most Indiana schools haven’t received new letter grades since 2018. In 2021, lawmakers removed consequences for schools that repeatedly earned failing marks, effectively putting the system on hold.
Indiana’s previous school accountability system focused heavily on standardized tests, academic growth and graduation rates.
While leaders said grades would be issued for the current school year, no consequences will be attached to those scores. Instead, they are meant to establish a baseline for schools.
Before the accountability model is final, Attorney General Rokita must sign off on it. In January, he raised concerns about standardized tests not being emphasized enough.
How would schools be graded?
Under the approved grading system, schools would receive a letter grade based on five characteristics:
- Academic mastery
- Career and postsecondary readiness, such as earning credentials or work-based learning
- Communication and collaboration Work ethic
- Civic, financial, and digital literacy
How grades will be determined for schools will be based on a points system given to each student. Points will be tied to “academic mastery” or standardized testing scores, and experience, which includes attendance, career and technical courses, work-based learning experiences, or year-over-year progress.
The weight of each point given to a student can vary depending on things like how well they scored on the ILEARN or IREAD tests, or if they are approaching proficiency on those tests, or if they attend school regularly.
Unlike Indiana’s previous model, schools will now be awarded points even if a student is approaching proficiency on a test or has seen progress from one year to the next. Points given for students who score at or above proficiency will be greater than those for students who approach that benchmark.
For at least this first year, the A-F grades will be connected to a slightly adjusted scale to accommodate the transition:
- Grade A: 85-100 points
- Grade B: 75-84.9 points
- Grade C: 65-74.9 points
- Grade D: 55-64.9 points
- Grade F: 54.9 points and lower
After the transition period, the grading scale will move to a traditional 100-59-point scale.
What could happen to Indiana schools who get failing grades?
Decisions on what the consequences could be for schools that receive failing grades could be made during the 2027 legislative session, Jenner.
Jenner did say, though, that she doesn’t want to just look at punishments for schools but instead how to support them when they’re struggling.
“Where we've seen a lot of success in Indiana, is not through consequences, consequences. It's through support,” Jenner said. “It's through trying to figure out every child can, every school can. How might we support them to get there?”
Changes that landed in the final accountability model
The final accountability model includes several changes:
- English learners: The model will account for English proficiency scores for students enrolled in Indiana for less than two years.
- Middle school: A new success indicator for seventh grade students who complete a high school graduation plan. High school coursework for middle schoolers will now only be calculated in eighth grade.
- Special education: The model will also now take into account scores from the state’s Indiana Alternate Measure, or I AM test, which assesses students with severe cognitive disabilities.
- High school requirements: Seniors can choose to take the ILEARN U.S. government test, a graduation requirement, for a success indicator. Schools are not penalized if a student skips it. Graduation rates and SAT proficiency are now standalone indicators, each worth 10% of a school’s grade 12 score. The model also takes into account the ACT and the Classic Learning Test, which was just approved by lawmakers to be an acceptable college entrance exam for public colleges or universities in Indiana.
Jenner also mentioned during Wednesday’s meeting that they now plan to submit their waiver to the U.S. Department of Education, requesting funding flexibility now that the accountability model has been settled.
Attorney General Todd Rokita voiced previous concerns with the new model
Over the past several months, as the state department of education collected feedback on the model, Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office voiced several concerns about the proposed models.
In a letter addressed to the IDOE on Jan. 5, 2026, Rokita’s office raises concerns that the new model could run afoul of state law, which emphasizes state testing as a primary measure of school accountability.
In his letter, Rokita argues that previous drafts of the model made elementary students' test scores secondary in the accountability model, even though state law requires them to be primary.
He also argues that for grading the high school levels, the SAT was not given enough importance and that a measure of students’ understanding of civics education was not properly outlined.
Rokita must sign off on the final rule for the accountability model before it is used to grade schools.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office told WFYI on Wednesday that they have not yet reviewed the new rule.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org