INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana lawmakers have ordered an independent review of the state’s A-F school grading system after the Associated Press suggested last week that former state Superintendent Tony Bennett may have manipulated grades.

State legislative leaders called on Indiana University policy analyst John Grew, a Democrat, and private research firm official Bill Sheldrake, a Republican, to lead an independent task force that will focus on allegations that Bennett changed grades to favor a charter school run by a Republican donor, and the overall effectiveness of the grading system, The Goshen News reports.

“I’m committed to having an accounting tool for schools,” House Speaker Brian Bosma said last week. “It’s a fundamental management principle: if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. But having said that, the measuring tool must be fair, it must be accurate, and it must be uniformly applied in a transparent fashion.”

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Indiana’s school grading system impacts a school’s funding, and is used to determine when chronically failing schools are taken over by the state.

Grew and Sheldrake will have until Labor Day to “evaluate the A-F grading system, determine its validity, ascertain the fairness of previous grades given to schools, and figure out if the system was manipulated by Bennett to favor some schools over others,” according to the News.

The Associated Press last week reported that emails between Bennett and his staff show they conspired to raise grades for some charter schools, one of which is funded by a top Republican campaign donor. Bennett resigned last week as Florida’s education commissioner, a job he’s held since losing his bid for a second term as Indiana’s superintendent.

Bennett said he did nothing wrong, but resigned to prevent the negative attention from miring education reform efforts in Florida. He said he would welcome an investigation into his work creating Indiana’s A-F grading system.

“That way, we can put the issue to rest,” he said. “I’m fearless about what they will find.”

Bosma said lawmakers have received a lot of negative feedback about the A-F grading system. When school grades came out last November, widespread protests prompted lawmakers to task the state school board with developing a new formula by this November.

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Glenda Ritz, a Democrat who beat Bennett in 2012, has also launched a review of the state’s grading system, and plans to unveil her findings to the state board of education this week.

Ritz’ close ties to the teachers union should automatically call into question her review of Bennett’s work. Bennett and the teachers union were mortal enemies during his tenure in Indiana.

Thankfully, it appears a main focus of the independent investigation ordered by lawmakers is to separate politics from policy, and to ensure all Indiana schools are held to the same high standard.

“The primary purpose must, for all, be improving education for Hoosier students,” Bosma told the News. “It can’t be about politics. It can’t be about the impact on adults. It must be about improving education for Hoosier students.”