Indiana Assessment Letter

January 11, 2001

Honorable Suellen K. Reed
Superintendent of Public Instruction
State Department f Education
Room 229, State House
200 West Washington Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204

Dear Superintendent Reed:

It has been a pleasure working with you and your staff to conclude the review process for Indiana’s final assessment system under the Title I. I appreciate your cooperation in making the changes in your assessment system that were necessary to meet the requirements of Section 1111(b)(3) and 1116(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. On the basis of those changes and the evaluation conducted by external peer reviewers and U.S. Department of Education staff, I am pleased to provide full approval for Indiana’s final assessment system.

As we discussed, external peer reviewers and U.S. Department of Education staff evaluated Indiana’s submission and found it to be in substantial conformance with the Title I requirements. They were impressed with the progress that Indiana has made in developing a sound comprehensive standards-based assessment system which supports the Title I mission to achieve high levels of learning for all students. Based on your letter of December 27, 2000, Indiana will make the following changes to meet the requirements of Section 1111(b)(3) and 1116(a) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

  • Indiana will report and include the results of all students, including students who take the alternate assessment, in the State’s system for measuring school progress under Title I for the 2000-2001 test administration.
  • Indiana will include in its disaggregated State, district, and school level performance reports the achievement results for migrant students and economically disadvantaged students compared to non-economically disadvantaged students where statistically valid and reliable.

Enclosed with this letter are detailed comments from the peer review team that evaluated Indiana’s assessment documents. We hope this information will be useful to the Indiana Department of Education in its efforts to continue a high quality assessment system.

Please be aware that approval of Indiana’ assessment system for Title I is not a determination that the system complies with federal civil rights requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Finally, please remember that if significant changes are made to Indiana’ assessment and/or accountability system, you must submit information about those changes to the Department as required by section 1111(e)(2) of Title I.

Congratulations on a fully approved assessment system.

Sincerely,

Michael Cohen

Enclosure


Return to state-by-state listing