Decision time on new ISTEP test
Will students take the replacement for the ISTEP student test once a year in May?
Consensus is building around the timing of the new exam in a review of proposals submitted by school leaders tasked with recommending ISTEP’s replacement.
The ideas follow school superintendents across the state blasting the panel for its slow progress and anticipated delays in rolling out the new exam. But panel members told IndyStar this week they expect to forward a detailed proposal to lawmakers by the December deadline.
“We were charged to come forward with some concrete plans,” said Scot Croner, superintendent of Blackford County Schools. “Legislators I’ve spoken with want something very much concrete and very much transparent to the public, transparent to educators and transparent to them what the panel suggests moving forward.”
The series of proposals, though varied in their approach, seem to indicate panelists don’t want the state to start from scratch in building a new exam. They want ISTEP given once a year at the end of the school year, rather than the two times it’s administered now beginning as early as March. And several panelists want to end IREAD, a Grade 3 reading exam that students can be retained if they fail.
“We used to do it in the fall and then switched to the spring,” said Byron Ernest, a member of the Indiana State Board of Education. “I’m a big believer in the spring testing. That’s the best time at the end of the year. Having said that that’s why I want it to be the very last thing in May. I’d like for the schools to have the entire year to teach and not need to worry about when the school year starts.”
A combined proposal by eight of the 23 panel members goes a step further. It recommends the state “provide relief from unintended accountability consequences as necessary.” That could mean reprieves from test scores negatively affecting A-F school ratings and teacher pay, similar to what lawmakers agreed to in 2015 when student performance plummeted on the revised, more rigorous test.
Ultimately, those members want to avoid an exam being developed “on the fly,” Croner said.
“We don’t want whoever creates it to have to start from scratch,” said Steve Baker, principal at Bluffton High School. “It takes two years to kind of start from scratch. We want to use whatever test items are out there.”
None of the plans suggest a specific test the state should use. Some tests could prove too political of a challenge to pass the Republican-dominated General Assembly, but have been recommended by testing experts. Those suggestions include PARCC, a test based off the national Common Core State Standards that Indiana ditched over concerns of federal intrusion in schools but whose academic standards still resemble.
Outgoing Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, who lost re-election, crafted the most detailed of the proposals. Ritz wanted to move toward a test that students in Grades 3-8 would take three times a year – in fall, winter and spring.
As for the high school, signs point to the state returning to end-of-course assessments given in math, English and biology. The state had moved to a Grade 10 general ISTEP exam.
The panel will meet again Tuesday. The group was created after lawmakers repealed ISTEP during the past legislative session. That repeal is currently set to take effect this summer.