INDIANAPOLIS — One thing is clear about last year's ISTEP testing after an interim study committee meeting Tuesday; the test was a bit of a mess. It was too long. It was too confusing and schools are still waiting on results and might still be waiting until November.
The constant headaches with the statewide year-end assessment of Indiana students led to changes and possible alternatives to ISTEP to be discussed by the Indiana General Assembly's Education Study Committee.
Committee members listened to hours of testimony Tuesday on what the right course of action is to make sure they don't get a repeat of last year's test. They also heard from experts from the Indiana Department of Education on what is being done differently for this year's ISTEP test.
The 2015-16 school year will be the first year for Pearson VUE as the publisher of ISTEP. Rich Young, a representative from the company, testified before the committee about what Pearson is doing to make sure this year's test runs smoothly.
"We want to provide stability for educators, parents and students," Young said.
While some of the witnesses think ISTEP is the way to go, others wanted to look at other alternatives. Sally Sloan, of the American Federation of Teachers, said ISTEP testing has gone too far. Recent changes have tied student performance on ISTEP to teacher salaries and school funding. Sloan said ISTEP was never meant to have that kind of power and said teachers are being forced to teach to the test instead of focusing on other education priorities.
"Our fixation seems to be on high stakes testing and it is robbing our children of the rich, meaningful education they deserve," Sloan said.
There was even a representative from Northwest Evaluation Association who said her company had a test ready to replace ISTEP if that was the will of the General Assembly and the state department of education.
Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, said she believes there is too much testing going on in schools but was against radical changes at this point.
"We just changed vendors," Austin said. "We need to make sure our tests are fair and evaluating what they are supposed to, but we need to give them time."
Austin, a former Anderson elementary school teacher, said there might be too much testing going on and was glad the department of education has reduced the amount of time students will be tested during this year's ISTEP.
In addition to a new vendor running the test, 2015-16 will also be the first year 10th-graders are once again assessed via ISTEP. Michelle Davis, of the Indiana Department of Education, said this is part of a new push to make sure students are on the path to being college and career ready.
The study committee will continue to discuss the issue of statewide testing during its next meeting at 1 p.m. Sept. 29.