Greater Clark County Schools has received a "C" on the Indiana Accountability Report Card, remaining unchanged from last year.The grading system was implemented two years ago to make it easier for parents to understand where a district and school rank. It’s based off results from the previous year and measures student test scores, graduation rates and other growth measurements.But Superintendent Andrew Melin says the accountability system measures schools on a curve, which makes it more difficult to show how individual schools have improved.“It means from year to year, even if schools are getting better the bar continues to move to whatever the norm group," he said.Melin recently replaced Stephen Daeschner, who made significant achievement gains in Greater Clark Schools.Now, a new initiative called IMPACT will be implemented next year that will target struggling students and hopefully improve the district's grade, said Melin.“We’re going to universally screen all of our students in our school system in regard to their reading skill and then those students who are struggling in their reading ability we’re going to intervene pretty aggressively during the school day," he said.The program will also require some students to have an intervention plan in place the will be followed by staff and students. In a release to the media, Melin said "targeting less than two percent of the district's 10,351 students will significantly impact our overall letter grade."On this year's report card six schools improved their grades, six school saw declines and six schools remained the same. Overall, Indiana schools received a higher percentage of As and Bs than Greater Clark Schools.Officials from other school districts have also voiced frustration at the new accountability system, although other districts in the area fared better than Greater Clark.West Clark Community Schools received a B, and New Albany-Floyd County received an A.
