Local public school superintendents have voiced their dissatisfaction with the ISTEP+ test in a resolution they are sending to lawmakers and educators across the state.
Members of the Northeast Indiana Superintendents Study Council collaborated on a document released Monday. It details the statewide test’s problems and asks state officials to replace its creator, CTB McGraw-Hill.
“(We) have lost all confidence in the CTB McGraw-Hill platform,” the superintendents write in the document.
The resolution is signed by 13 superintendents from area school districts and says more local superintendents support its content, although they were unable to sign it.
They recommend their own choice for statewide test-writing duties: the Northwest Evaluation Association. About a third of Indiana school districts, including many local districts, already use NWEA for assessments besides the state-mandated ISTEP+.
The document’s complaints about ISTEP+ include: a lack of infrastructure to support statewide testing, defective test booklets, computer difficulties, repeatedly failed trial tests, excessive testing and delayed results.
The resolution also complains of the test’s ineffectiveness in tracking student progress, a purported goal of ISTEP+.
As such, the document says, the superintendents do not trust the test’s results as “valid and reliable representations of our Indiana public schools.” It also takes issue with the weight those results hold in the state’s assessment of schools and school districts.
DeKalb Eastern Superintendent Jeff Stephens said the resolution came about due to problems schools have experienced with current ISTEP+ testing, as well as a bill in the state Legislature that would replace the ISTEP+ program.
“Legislators realize there are issues with the system,” Stephens said. “It’s a good time to capitalize on that.”
The document was sent to lawmakers and educators around the state, as well as Gov. Mike Pence and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz. Stephens, who co-authored the resolution with DeKalb Central Superintendent Sherry Grate, said he hopes it will provide state leaders with food for thought.
“We hope the General Assembly will use the information and make a decision to move away from out current ISTEP to something more usable,” Stephens said.
In addition to Stephens and Grate, superintendents signing the document and their school districts are: Ann Linson, East Noble; Brent Wilson, MSD Steuben County; Jeff Reed, Prairie Heights; Galen Mast, Smith-Green; Dennis VanDuyne, West Noble; Randall Zimmerly, Westview; Jon Willman, Hamilton; Loraine Vaughn, Fremont; Jane Allen, Middlebury; Joseph Sabo, Wa-Nee; and Thomas Edington, Wawasee.