ISTEP Debacle Puts Educators In A Pinch

By Mike Perleberg (Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Indiana parents found out last month. Soon enough, school leaders will begin finding out how their students fared on last spring’s ISTEP+ test. The warnings issued by State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, Governor Mike Pence, and other state leaders indicate that test scores will be down considerably with the state’s new, more rigorous academic standards and pass/fail lines which some educators claim were set too high by the State Board of Education. Contributing further to the lack of faith in this year’s test scores have been differences in the written and online tests, excessive hours of testing, and grading problems by test vendor CTB McGraw Hill. Statewide, English/Language Arts passing percentages are down by an average of 16 percent while math passing percentages are down 24 percent. Some schools may see even larger declines. School administrators locally are saying that this past spring’s test was flawed and has caused many kids to fail who probably shouldn’t have. “We had students go from ‘pass+’ to ‘do not pass’ in one year,” Lawrenceburg Community Schools superintendent Karl Galey tells Eagle Country 99.3. “It raises some questions.” In a November 9 letter, Galey and Andrea Spaeth, LCSC’s director of student services, urged parents of non-passing students to request a rescore of their test. The Indiana Department of Education’s window for requesting rescores was only five days, November 9-13. Galey questions the school- and grade-level test scores that are expected to be released this month. He says the public should be skeptical when comparing 2015’s scores to prior years. A-F accountability grades assigned to schools and districts that are tied to test scores are also being called into question. The state has postponed unveiling the test results until later this month because of problems with grading.  Galey said he feels bad for LCSC’s staff, who are still waiting on assessments for their incentive pay from last school year. Spaeth said the timing is putting a crunch on classroom teachers. “We are going to get scores December 8. Those are going to be adjusted scores that account for rescores and any sort of point additions. That gives us eight days until Christmas vacation, which that time will have to be spent looking at the data. Then it gives us two months to determine what they need remediation on form last year before we go into our next testing window,” Spaeth explains. Scores have usually been released in August. Galey is also urging parents to contact their state legislators and ask for them to find a solution the ongoing ISTEP+ problems. Lawmakers already seem to be well-aware. “We certainly recognize that this is a huge issue… It’s a bigger mess than even what we expected,” State Senator Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond) said at a 2016 legislative session preview event in Lawrenceburg on Tuesday. “These numbers in my opinion are just bogus,” said State Rep. Randy Frye (R-Greensburg). “There’s reasons and there’s a lot of blame to go around and I’ve got to shoulder some of it.” For much of the past year, Ritz, a Democrat, has been calling for the 2015 test scores to be separated from teachers’ evaluations. In October, Republican governor Pence joined Ritz in calling on lawmakers to pass legislation separating ISTEP scores from teacher performance pay. Frye and Raatz both expect that a bill will be on the governor’s desk within the first few weeks of the session. That way teachers will be able to get their raises that they’ve earned, Frye said. “We don’t want the teachers or the schools to suffer from the change in the test, or the kids,” said Raatz. What suggestion the governor's office has on allowing test scores to impact schools' A-F grades remains to be seen. RELATED STORIES: SEI Lawmakers On ’16 Session: “RFRA Stands For Road Funding Right Away” Pence Writes That Decline In ISTEP Scores Shouldn’t Impact Teacher Pay Ritz: Expect Lower ISTEP Scores Indiana School Grades Won’t Be Released Until January