GREENFIELD — With the adoption of the state’s new academic standards, big changes are coming to the ISTEP exam next spring.
State officials, teachers and administrators say they expect scores will drop in 2015 because the test will be so different.
The new ISTEP will be filled with “greater rigor,” educators say. Students will be asked not just to come up with the correct answers: They must also be able to explain how they came up with them.
“We are trying to build awareness for our parents that it is inevitable our kids are going to score lower than they have in the past,” said Rhonda Peterson, curriculum director at Southern Hancock schools. “It is a vastly different assessment.”
The test is based on Indiana’s new college- and career-ready Indiana Academic Standards, which were approved earlier this year. The new standards replace the federal Common Core State Standards.
“Indiana had strong standards but just not enough depth and rigor,” said Deb Weiler, teacher at Sugar Creek Elementary School, who was part of a state committee that helped put the new testing standards in place. “It was just a lot of recite and recall.”
Weiler said the test is designed to measure how students think.
“The new way of testing is called ‘evidence-based,’” Weiler said. “Kids have to be thinkers, and that means creative writing is out, and evidence-based writing is in.”
As an example in math, Weiler said, the new standards are much tougher in that what was being taught in sixth grade will now be taught in fourth grade.
“There will be a shift in skills from grade level to grade level,” Weiler said. “Many times, it can be up to two grade levels.”
Educators are now giving students a crash course in what to expect when they take ISTEP starting in March.
They’re also informing parents of the changes and are using acuity testing, another growth measurement assessment, to get kids ready for ISTEP.
“These new test items are different from what students have experienced in the past,” Peterson said. “They are bolder and have a lot more steps. It’s not like multiple choices anymore.”
Not only is the test going to be different, it will also have a new technology-enhanced element beyond the standard multiple-choice questions.
Instead of selecting one answer, students might have to select the best three out of five answers.
“We used to preach to our kids that there was one answer. We can no longer do that,” Weiler said.
Greenfield Central Junior High math teacher Kristen Piron attended a state workshop on the ISTEP changes and said the new standards will end up helping students in the long run.
“The big thing they are trying to do with the new testing is get the kids to think about thinking and the process students use to solve problems,” Piron said.
The newer testing will allow students to show and explain how they came up with an answer rather than just identifying the correct one.
“The big addition to the typical standards we have to teach in math, like adding and subtracting and decimals, is the process standards,” Piron said.
While she would like to see the changes put in place with more time to teach the new standards, Piron likes them.
“It’s moving forward to the future, where kids need to be – more of an independent thinker,” she said. “We just need to kind of shift how we are getting kids to learn.”
Greenfield-Central Superintendent Harold Olin said many districts will rely on acuity diagnostic and readiness testing throughout the year to gauge a student’s progress.
He acknowledges teachers and parents just don’t have a great amount of time to prepare students for the new ISTEP, despite the fact test results are crucial for districts. School letter grades released earlier this week, for example, rely heavily on ISTEP results.
“They’re important for accountability scores for the school and teacher performance, but some of that has got to change,” Olin said. “I just don’t think we are going to be able to measure growth as we have done in the past, because it is a new test with new standards.”
He said G-C has been informing parents of the new standards via conferences and take-home work. He said it is important parents understand the state has new guidelines, but he feels in time students will adjust.
“I think students are pretty resilient, but that alone will not help them be successful,” Olin said. “They’re going to need some guidance, so… I am a little concerned….”
Eastern Hancock Elementary School Principal Amanda Pyle said her teachers have looked at the new test samples, which have been made available to educators.
“As a school staff, we took the sample tests and paid close attention to the type of question as well as the type of output required by the students to solve the problems,” Pyle said. “The test is definitely going to be more rigorous. The reading passages were much longer, and the math problems more complex, often requiring students to solve four problems within one problem to get the correct answer.”
Olin said he’s just ready for the state to get a set of standards and stick with it.
“I think this is our third set of standards in four years,” he said. “That is difficult for a classroom teacher to prepare their curriculum.”
The coming ISTEP is only an interim test for 2015, with a proposed new ISTEP to be fully implemented in spring 2016.