It was a win-one, lose-one week for Indiana students.
On one hand, students won’t be subjected to 12 hours of ISTEP+ exams, a length that raised the eyebrows of students, parents, teachers and administrators.
On the other hand, the computerized ISTEP+ exam again struggled with a statewide stress test. Many school systems — including Mitchell — reported frozen screens and other digital glitches.
The week sums up the sad state of education, a critically important subject that has devolved into political theater thanks to our decision-makers in Indianapolis.
According to the Associated Press, State schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz told the Indiana State Board of Education that her Indiana Department of Education could cut about 2 1/2 hours from the language arts section of this year’s ISTEP+ exams and 40 minutes from mathematics sections.
Parents and teachers protested this year’s exam had doubled to about 12 hours. The tests had to be redesigned this year to align with new state standards after Indiana withdrew from the national Common Core State Standards last year.
The state had hoped to use this year as a transition for the new test, the AP reported. But the U.S. Department of Education rejected that request. As a result, the new exam had to include the pilot questions. State education leaders now say the pilot questions will be split up so students will see only half as many as originally planned.
The changes were made in consultation with two outside experts hired by Gov. Mike Pence and will be implemented before about 450,000 students in grades 3 through 8 begin taking the tests this month.
Sadly, the move came with political, not educational, cheerleading from both sides.
Dan Elsener, a board member appointed by Pence, said he was glad the governor stepped in.
“There’s been a big leadership void that put a lot of people through a lot of angst that did not have to happen,” said Elsener, who is president of Marian University in Indianapolis.
Ritz said she and her staff have been working since last week on ways to cut down the exam’s length, which wasn’t determined until late January.
“We’ve been doing yeoman’s work with our vendors to get this totally accomplished,” she said.
Such finger-pointing must stop.
This is a high-stakes test. The scores are used not only to gauge the progress of each student, but also to evaluate teachers, grade schools and rate school corporations.
Many argue that the test results should not be used in those ways, but Indiana has chosen to rely on those scores. (Ritz had proposed a one-year suspension of using the ISTEP+ results for school and teacher evaluations. But board members voted to remove that from the meeting agenda. Pence and Republican legislative leaders had said they wouldn’t support such action, according to the AP account.)
The other ISTEP+ uncertainty involves the computer system. In two preliminary tests, too many schools reported problems with the software. In some cases, computer screens froze. In other cases, the software skipped to the end of the exams, leaving students wondering what to do.
ISTEP+ is a critical test. If the state insists on placing so much importance on it, the state must get it right.
Put politics aside. Start thinking about our students.