Indiana lawmakers want answers from ISTEP+ test vendor

The Legislative Council, a bipartisan committee of top state lawmakers, agreed Thursday to call representatives from CTB/McGraw-Hill, the ISTEP+ vendor, before the General Assembly's Commission on Education next month to detail what went wrong and their plans to fix it.

"We felt very strongly there ought to be a public discussion about this, so if nothing else we can get reassurances, hopefully, that this is not going to happen again," said Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne. "For a highly-paid vendor to have this occur is totally unacceptable."

Long said he also wants parents, local school superintendents and Glenda Ritz, the Democratic state superintendent of public instruction, to participate in the education commission hearing.

The date of the meeting, likely in late June at the Statehouse, has not yet been set.

ISTEP+ tests, which determine in part teacher wages and the state's school ratings, were interrupted for thousands of students across Indiana when the CTB/McGraw-Hill computer servers reportedly could not handle the load of test takers.

Ritz and Northwest Indiana school leaders have said they're concerned about the validity of the halted tests. The exams were ultimately completed days later.

CTB/McGraw-Hill has one year remaining in a five-year, $95 million state testing contract.

The education commission was one of 20 study committees approved by the Legislative Council. The other panels, made up of state senators and representatives, will meet this summer and fall to review dozens of different topics for potential legislation during the 2014 session.

Among the items due to be scrutinized are the membership of the South Shore Line operating board, the addition of a second Lake Michigan port, changes relating to Indiana's new criminal code, school safety issues, Common Core State Standards, alcohol sales laws and the implementation of federal health care mandates.