The Indiana Department of Education is awaiting an analysis of results from this spring’s ISTEP+exam, which was marred by testing interruptions and forced the state to extend the testing window.
The scores were supposed to be released in May, but the validity of the scores required some examination so they were delayed. It’s created a domino effect. While the analysis is being completed, the state can’t determine its A-F letter grades for schools, and districts can’t use the scores in their teacher evaluation rubrics, which determine teacher compensation.
“Indiana in recent years has moved toward high-stakes testing,” DOE spokesman Daniel Altman said. “Whereas it used to only be determining student achievement, now it determines two big things. So the scores need to be accurate and valid.”
The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment is reviewing whether the testing problems materially affected student scores. Once that process is complete, a second phase will determine whether scores should be adjusted based on findings in the report. The state and local school districts identified nearly 80,000 students who experienced interrupted testing sessions.
Altman said there isn’t an estimated completion date, but State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz hopes the analysis, which will be conducted by NCIEA co-founder Richard Hill, will be finished by late July. Hill will also look at examine CTB-McGraw Hill’s own report of what went wrong. The report will cost $53,600.
Last week, the DOE announced it was seeking at least $613,600 in damages from CTB-McGraw Hill, who administered the online portion of the exam to 482,000 students across the state. After the phasing online testing in over the past four years, this was the first time all students in grades 3 through 8 have taken the online portion. The state’s $95 million contract with CTB-McGraw Hill runs through 2014.
Officials from CTB-McGraw Hill told state officials in a June hearing with legislators that the problem arose due to inadequate virtual memory with the servers and software, particularly on the first two days of the exam, according the CTB-McGraw Hill President Ellen Haley. Similar problems cropped up in Oklahoma as their students were testing at the same time.