Head of ISTEP review panel says test is 'just too long'
The Gov. Mike Pence-appointed leader of a panel charged with replacing the state’s unpopular ISTEP test thinks its members are beginning the critical and high-profile task on the same page.
“The test is just too long,” said Nicole Fama, principal of a charterlike Indianapolis school. “So we want to look for a better option — collectively. I think we want to do right by kids, and we want to do right by teachers.”
The Republican governor tapped Fama, principal of School 93, to lead the 23-member panel, whose membership also includes lawmakers and educators from traditional public and charter schools. The panel is expected to begin meeting this month, Fama said, with the deadline of recommending an alternative test to the General Assembly by December.
She said the panel’s membership constitutes a “diverse group” that will do a “deep, deep analysis” to find a new test after lawmakers ditched ISTEP — the state’s long-time standardized exam — beginning in the 2017-18 school year after glitches and problems with its administration.
“I feel like we’re not going to rule anything out, and we want to look at everything,” Fama said. “My goal is not about politics. It’s not about parties. It’s about the kids.”
Fama leads an Indianapolis Public School that in the fall will convert to innovation network status, a set-up similar to a charter school where the school remains in the IPS district but won’t have to follow the district’s collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union. She joins two other IPS school officials to serve on the panel. Other area members include an assistant principal from the Tindley charter schools and the principal of Roncalli High School.
In naming Fama, Pence described her as an “accomplished and passionate public educator.”
School districts begin ISTEP and it's running smoothly - for the most part
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, who has butted heads with Pence over education policy, has sharply criticized Pence's authority to appoint the chair.
In March, after the General Assembly declined to name her as the panel’s co-chair, Ritz argued that “the chair of the panel to study the alternatives to ISTEP will be a political appointee of the most political person in the state." Ritz didn't respond to a request for comment on the selection of Fama but has said she “looks forward to this important work.”
With that tension, the panel will begin meeting to settle arguably the biggest controversy in state education policy — how Indiana should test its students.
Members of the panel surveyed by IndyStar say they worry about the short timeline they face in achieving the task but remain committed to shortening the length of the exam while making the data it produces on student learning more meaningful for teachers and parents.
Those members also told IndyStar they are open to Indiana moving toward an off-the-shelf test as opposed to writing its own standardized exam from scratch. They also want the test to mirror the types of skills that will eventually help students succeed in college admission tests, such as the SAT and ACT.
“I want to make sure we get it done right. I don’t want to work for the next five months, six months, and say two years from now that we didn’t quite get it right and we need to go back to the drawing board,” said Scot Croner, superintendent of Blackford County Schools, who was appointed to the panel by House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis.
The test doesn’t need to be “high stress” to measure a student’s academic growth, said Ken Folks, superintendent of East Allen County Schools, who was appointed to the panel by Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne.
Pence’s signature phases out unpopular ISTEP
“I want it to be accurate. I want it to be what’s best for the children — best for our students — and I’m open to whatever those options are. Right now I think what we have, it is too long, and it is too stressful,” Folks said.
Kids are suffering from “testing fatigue,” said Edward Rangel, assistant principal of Tindley Genesis, who also was appointed by Bosma.
“The length and the amount of time kids spend testing is something that I will be very excited to look into,” Rangel said.
Hoosier students will take the existing ISTEP in Grades 3-8 and 10 until spring 2017. The test was reworked to match the state’s new academic standards beginning in spring 2015. The state is paying $56.4 million to administer that test for three years.
The window for schools to give this year’s ISTEP ended Friday.
Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.
Indiana scraps ISTEP but will its replacement face a political test?
Panel members
Nicole Fama, chairwoman appointed by Gov. Mike Pence and principal of George H. Fisher School 93
Glenda Ritz, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction
Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education
Steve Braun, Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner
Sen. Dennis Kruse, Senate education policy leader
Rep. Robert Behning, House education policy leader
Byron Ernest, Indiana State Board of Education member and head of schools for Hoosier Academies
Other Pence appointments
Jim Roberts, superintendent of Batesville Community School Corporation
Charles Weisenbach, principal of Roncalli High School
Brent Freeman, special education officer for Indianapolis Public Schools
Michelle McKeown, general counsel for the Indiana Charter School Board
Ritz appointments
Ayana Wilson-Coles, teacher at Eagle Creek Elementary School in Pike Township
Julie Kemp, principal at Chrisney Elementary School in North Spencer County School Corporation
Wendy Robinson, superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools
Callie Marksbary, Indiana State Teachers Association
House Speaker Brian Bosma appointments
Melissa Scherle, Indianapolis Public Schools teacher at Washington Irving Elementary
Edward Rangel, assistant principal at Tindley Genesis
Scot Croner, Blackford County Schools superintendent
Lynne Stallings, professor at Ball State University
Senate President Pro Tem David Long appointments
Jean Russell, 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year at Haverhill Elementary in Southwest Allen County Schools
Steve Baker, Bluffton High School principal
Kenneth Folks, East Allen County Schools superintendent
Marilyn Moran-Townsend, chairman and CEO of CVC Communications in Fort Wayne