Indiana high schools struggle to improve

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener

More Hoosier schools are making progress toward state and federal student achievement standards, but high schools locally and across the state have failed to keep up with the gains made by elementary and middle schools, according to data released Tuesday by the Indiana Department of Education.
The problem with high schools boils down to “a combination of generally low performance and no significant improvement,” Jeff Zaring, the department’s chief of results and reform, told the State Board of Education.
As a result, the board voted to put three-quarters of Indiana’s high schools into “academic watch” and “academic probation” categories based in part on standardized test scores and how they’ve changed over the past three years. Locally, that includes Henryville, Silver Creek, Borden, Clarksville, Charlestown, Jeffersonville, New Albany, North Harrison, Corydon Central and South Central high schools.