Former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett resigned last month after controversy erupted over school grading changes he made as Indiana’s superintendent. Now, a report backs up Bennett’s claim that he did nothing wrong.
Emails were leaked that suggested Bennett changed Indiana’s grading formula to benefit a charter school operated by a Republican Party donor. Bennett contended that news reports about the leaked emails were malicious and unfounded.
But he resigned after less than a year as Florida’s education commissioner because he said the bad publicity was a distraction.“Every minute we spend defending the credibility of your commissioner because of what’s said 800 miles away is a minute we waste that we should have been thinking about educating children in Florida.”
The Indiana Legislature ordered a review of the state’s school grading formula.
The findings show that - as Bennett said - the changes he made addressed a flaw in the system, and they were appropriately applied to all schools.
The report also shows room for improvement. It found that educators didn’t believe the grading formula was a fair or accurate representation of a school’s performance.
The report recommends that the Indiana Department of Education be more transparent in its decision-making and create measures that rely less on standardized tests.