Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill Tuesday that will eliminate ISTEP by mid-2017.
The standardized test, which measures math skills, reading and writing in third- through eighth-grade students, will be phased out by July 1 of that year, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office.
HEA 1395 also establishes a 23-member panel which will look at alternatives to ISTEP.
According to the bill, this panel will look into reducing testing time and costs and increasing test transparency and fairness to students, teachers and schools.
Tim Pritchett, the public relations and information officer for the Monroe County school system, said in an email that faster grading could apprise schools of their strengths and weaknesses within the same class year.
“I think our hopes match many other corporations wanting to find an assessment to inform our teachers’ instruction,” Pritchett said. “A formative assessment with a quick turnaround for results could monitor progress and inform instruction for a current year classroom teacher rather than a summative assessment like the current ISTEP that does not show results until the following year.”
The panel will include the superintendent of public instruction, as well as Senate and House education committee chairs and members of state school systems who have yet to be appointed to the panel, according to the Indiana Senate Committee on Education and Career Development’s recommendations.
Pence’s office and the State Board of Education did not respond to requests for more information Tuesday.
Mark Lotter, the director of external relations at the SBOE, said the state’s new accountability system, finalized about a week ago, will change the way the ISTEP affects school grades for the next two years.
For grades 3-8, the A-F grades will weigh individual student progress and the overall pass-fail rates equally, Lotter said.
The focus on yearlong progress was one educators indicated they wanted from the state board, he said.
The panel looking at new test options will also revise the accountability system, Lotter said.
But with a new president and secretary of education yet to be appointed, Indiana’s testing requirements for 2018 are still vague.
“There are a lot of questions out there,” Lotter said.
Federal law still requires annual testing that cumulatively measures everything a student learns in a given year, Lotter said.
But other requirements won’t be set until after the election, which is why the panel won’t report its findings to Pence until Dec. 1, Lotter said.
In the meantime, the state’s accountability system and students’ adjustment to the new, more rigorous ISTEP should even out school scores, Lotter said.
“We’ll see fewer F schools and fewer A schools,” he said. “You’ll see more B and C schools, and I think you’ll see it grow from there.”
Glenda Ritz, the current state superintendent, spoke out against ISTEP and A-F school grading system in January.
On her website, she denounced the “expensive, lengthy, high stakes, pass/fail approach” of the No Child Left Behind test.
The Indiana Department of Education directed media requests to a March 14 op-ed by Ritz that ran in the Journal Gazette.
In the piece, Ritz further criticizes the legislative session’s measures, which she said “appears to be drawn up around a political agenda rather than an education one.”
“For reasons that have not been explained, and despite my personal written request to the governor and General Assembly leadership ... the chair of the panel to study alternatives to ISTEP+ will be a political appointee of the most political person in the state: Pence,” Ritz said in the piece.
On Jan. 21, Pence signed two other ISTEP reprieves into law, affecting the results of the 2015 test.
Senate Bill 200 provided the results of the 2015 ISTEP couldn’t negatively affect a school’s grade from the 2013-2014 school year, meaning many schools kept the same acountability score as the previous year.
House Bill 1003 allowed a teacher to either use the 2014 or 2015 ISTEP scores — whichever was higher — to calculate a personal evaluation for 2016.
HEA 1395 passed 38-10 in the House of Representatives in late February and, after more work in committee, passed unanimously in the Indiana Senate.
It went back to the House of Representatives to resolve changes and passed 77-19 in early March before moving to Pence’s desk.
“I’m also grateful to sign into law bills that will help ensure students in Indiana receive an excellent education in a safe and nurturing environment, and that working teachers who take in additional responsibilities may receive recognition and compensation for their efforts,” Pence said in a state press release.
