Educators express concerns over details in evaluating Indiana schoolchildren

Evansville Teachers Association President Mark Lichtenberg said teachers are doing this summer what they always do — planning next year’s lessons keeping standards in mind, especially with English/Language Arts and math teachers paying close attention to reviewing the new standards; how they compare with past standards and what modifications may be needed.

“The recommendation to expand ISTEP to grades 9 and 10 and phase out the current ECAs (end-of-course assessments) will necessitate some changes which are difficult to predict right now,” Lichtenberg said. “At the end of the day, the implementation of the new standards and assessments will reveal the full impact on both teachers and students, but there are some things that are cause for concern.”

In two separate education meetings on Monday, the Indiana Education Roundtable with Gov. Mike Pence adopted policy recommendations for the state’s new testing program under the new academic standards; followed by a special meeting of the Indiana State Board of Education where some members expressed concerns to Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz that they didn’t feel informed about the Department of Education’s efforts to maintain the state’s No Child Left Behind waiver. The deadline to meet federal concerns and submit a one-year extension over the waiver is Monday.

Other proposals at Monday’s meetings included keeping the statewide IREAD-3 reading assessment for third graders.

Ritz suggested the new tests provide a separate reading score, but a majority of the Roundtable and Pence opposed that and said the State Board could discuss reading scores further at a later date.

One of the flaws of the current assessment system, Lichtenberg said, is that lack of reading comprehension data for teachers and parents to use in determining the best educational path for students. He is concerned that Pence and a majority of the Roundtable opposed Ritz’s proposal.

“The leading indicator of academic success is reading comprehension ... By not embedding reading level data in assessments such as IREAD and ISTEP, teachers must turn to other assessments in order to get that information,” Lichtenberg said. “Assessments are a necessary part of education, but we must realize that they do not teach students anything. What they do is take away valuable time that could otherwise be spent teaching and learning in the classroom, and virtually every teacher I have spoken with would agree that steps should be taken to minimize the time spent testing students.”

Currently, students take end-of-course assessments to qualify to graduate, but under the proposed structure, the 10th grade ISTEP would count.

That worries Walter Lambert, Warrick County School Corp. director of secondary curriculum and instruction, because he wondered if that meant grades 11-12 don’t matter.

“I think being rushed a little bit this year to get this test done is going to be kind of difficult,” Lambert said. “Because the federal DOE wants something, the State Board wants something, the superintendent (Ritz) wants something else. I think all three entities have different ideas of what they want for testing, so it’s about getting to the best solution for kids and even for taxpayers because it does cost a significant amount of money to give these tests.”

Lambert said overall the tests will be changing, and teachers are preparing for that, but it’s difficult to know for sure what those changes will be until the final guidelines are approved.

“I think the days of multiple choice tests are gone,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a lot more show your work, how did you come to that answer or conclusion, from my understanding.”

Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. Superintendent David Smith said the district is very interested in seeing what is on the new test and the content it covers. He said the district is working this summer to align its curriculum with the new state standards adopted in April. Through the work, Smith said district officials are finding gaps in what was not included in the standards and are having to fill those.

“We are just waiting with the rest of the public on what will transpire with the new standards and new assessments,” Smith said.

Smith said there is a lot at stake with standardized testing.

“I can understand the need to take a year’s pause to determine the validity and reliability of data,” Smith said, “but I do understand the desire to continue to have accountability metrics for schools.”

One of Lichtenberg’s other concerns includes teacher evaluations. He noted his organization is not against them, but because he said all parties have acknowledged the new standards and assessments will likely result in lower student performance in the upcoming year, teachers are concerned about how it will impact their evaluations.

“We (ETA) support fairness in accountability systems, and that means that the professionals in the field should be fully involved in developing those systems,” he said.