ISTEP panel divided over replacement test
A panel responsible for recommending a new student standardized test remains deeply divided on a replacement for the controversial ISTEP as it races toward a deadline to wrap up its work.
On one side: Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s top educator, wants the state to use computer-based tests on which questions adapt to a student’s skill level. Her goal: Give teachers a better picture of what individual students know.
On the other: Some panelists, appointed by Gov. Mike Pence, argue that the state should maintain a single pass/fail exam but potentially offer other tests that measure students’ progress in school.
The Indiana House education policy leader, state Rep. Robert Behning, attempted a compromise at a meeting of the panel Tuesday.
Keep the current system — for now — and take some time to pilot other test designs, Behning suggested.
But that plan, Ritz argued, would go against a new state law that requires Indiana to end ISTEP after the upcoming school year. She questioned whether the committee could postpone that deadline.
“Right now we’ve been given the parameters that the test is going to expire at the end of the ’16-17 school year,” Ritz said after the meeting.
Panel faces tight deadline to replace ISTEP
To that end, Behning said he didn’t want to rush it.
“I’m a little concerned, based on where we are today, we’re never going to get to where we need to be in the timeline that we have allotted,” said Behning, an Indianapolis Republican.
Ritz, a Democrat who is running for re-election this year, said Indiana needs to think “out of the box.”
“Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t,” Ritz said.
Some panel members have resisted the idea of using an adaptive test. For one, they worry that some schools won’t have the technology and that an adaptive test wouldn’t translate well to a paper form. Then there’s concern that an adaptive test, if designed to ask increasingly easier or harder questions, wouldn’t gauge whether students know what they should for their grade level.
But Ritz said Indiana can identify a test that measures progress of individual students, as well as how they rate on grade-level topics.
“I really want to be taking a look at what adaptive assessments are out there, so we can take bold steps toward student-centered assessment,” she said.
The 23-member panel has until December to recommend a replacement to the Indiana General Assembly.
Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.