Indiana BOE Approves New School Accountability Model

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State Board of Education has unanimously approved a new model to judge school performance.

During their meeting on Wednesday, board members agreed on a new system to be put in place that would assign A-F letter grades to schools, which hasn’t been the case since 2018. The model would also give students points for passing state tests, like in math and reading, and additional points for passing other tests, like the Classic Learning Test.

“After nearly a decade without updated school letter grades, Indiana now has a stronger, clearer A-F accountability model that focuses on both the knowledge and real-world skills that prepare students for the future,” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said in a news release on Wednesday. “As we implement this new model, our priority is to give parents transparent, easy-to-understand information about how their child’s school is supporting student success.”

Schools would be given a grade on an A-F scale based on the average of their students’ points. The grades could factor into the shared accountability system that the new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation is charged with creating, which could result in school closures.

A school’s overall accountability rating would be determined based on the average points generated by all students based on academic mastery, experience, knowledge, and skills through the following grading scale:

A: 90-100
B: 80-89
C: 70-79
D: 60-69
F: 0-59

The Indiana Department of Education released the first draft of an updated state accountability model in June 2025. A second draft was sent out in October 2025 to include new success indicators and elevated credentials of value in high school.

The Indiana Department of Education said these changes were made to the final accountability model:

Placing greater weight on academic proficiency
Elevating the importance of primary literacy and language development
Adding a new success indicator that incentivizes steps that students can take in middle school to be better prepared for high school, including outlining a graduation plan

Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said after the meeting that “this has been a long time coming.”