A seventh grader may know the equation for slope, but that’s not what she will be asked on the new version of the ISTEP+.
Instead, she’ll use her mouse to plot a point based on the coordinates given in the online test question, and then she’ll click on another point on the graph to create a line with the slope given in the question.
Making sure students know how to communicate their knowledge through the new technology-enhanced items in test questions is a concern for teachers preparing their students for the new version of the ISTEP+ that will be administered to third through eighth graders later this month.
“It requires higher-level thinking, problem solving and the writing is different. It’s all to make sure our kiddos are college and career ready,” said Teni Helmberger, district coordinator of assessment for Kokomo School Corp. “Now we just have to make sure they know how to answer the questions.”
The Indiana Department of Education commissioned a new version of the annual Indiana Statewide Testing for Education Progress Plus for 2015 in order to comply with federal regulations related to the state’s No Child Left Behind waiver. Because Indiana adopted new College and Career Readiness Academic Standards instead of the Common Core State Standards going into the 2014-15 school year, it had to update its standardized test to align with the new standards.
Students are tested on math and English language arts as part of the ISTEP every year from third through eighth grade. Fourth and sixth graders also take a science test, and fifth and seventh graders are tested on social studies as part of the ISTEP; the science and social studies portions of the test are unchanged in the new version.
“The new standards are more rigorous, so the ISTEP is more rigorous,” said Daniel Altman, press secretary for the IDOE.
Keeping up with technology
Still, Helmberger said it’s the technology enhanced items – not the rigor of the content covered – that is most daunting for teachers as they prepare their students to take the new version of the test. ISTEP scores are significant because they track students’ growth, drive instruction and professional development for teachers, are factored into school letter grades and impact teacher evaluations.
“Teachers across the district are working with [students] to provide sample items,” Helmberger said.
The technology-enhanced items include drop-down lists, multiple correct responses where students are asked to pick the best one and questions where students are asked to highlight context clues from an excerpt.
“It’s not your typical, traditional multiple choice,” Altman said. “It actually requires students to demonstrate knowledge.”
Lissa Stranahan, director of exceptional learners and testing at Western School Corp., said teachers have started to change their instruction to better prepare students for the new ISTEP – for example, giving an open book test so memorizing facts isn’t the focus.
“The biggest shift in our instruction is [having students] find the textual evidence to support their answers,” Stranahan said. “We’re not looking for that recitation of information, but we’re looking for students to find the information and apply it in a new situation.”
Western has a district-wide 1:1 technology initiative, which means all students have their own iPad to use for school assignments. Stranahan says that exposure should help them with the technology-enhanced items on the test, but still some students are better with technology than others.
For questions that require multiple steps to selecting a right answer – like a question with two fill-in-the-blank slots or dragging sentences from a reading selection into a certain order – Stranahan says staff aren’t sure whether students need to complete every step correctly to have the answer counted in their favor, or if there will be a system that awards partial credit for the steps they get right.
“There has not been direction provided to us,” she said. “That’s one of our fears, more so with the math and graphing.”
Even with the unknown elements of the new ISTEP, Stranahan thinks the more complex questions are appropriate to hold students to high college- and career-readiness standards.
“I think it is more relevant to promote critical thinking and support their answers,” she said. “Instead of choosing an answer and moving on, I think it’s important that they understand why that answer is correct.”
Test development
CTB/McGraw Hill is responsible for the development, administration, scoring and reporting of results for the new ISTEP+, as well as Indiana’s IREAD and IDOE Acuity tests. This version of the ISTEP is the first time schools have been required to offer a portion of the test online, though they’ve had the option to do so for years.
A Statewide Readiness Test held mid-January to assess how servers handled schools across the state offering the online test at the same time resulted in a system crash. Several area school districts had canceled school that day due to weather, so they didn’t participate in the readiness test.
“That gave [CTB/McGraw Hill] a lot of valuable information on some of the back-end work they need to get done to be ready for the ISTEP,” Altman said.
Another stress test has been scheduled for Feb. 12, and the ISTEP assessment window now opens Feb. 25.
Meanwhile the IDOE is continuing to review proposals from test vendors that are interested in developing the 2015-16 ISTEP. That’s right, another new version of the test is coming next school year.
CTB/McGraw Hill’s contract with the IDOE is up this year, so the department had already set in motion plans to develop a new test for 2015-16 before the U.S. Department of Education directed the state to update its test for the current school year to match its new academic standards.
Altman said the IDOE is considering proposals, and a decision is expected in March on which vendor will be awarded the contract.
The IDOE estimates administering the ISTEP costs $22 million a year, with a total of $46.2 million spent annually on testing. Altman said there will be no “significant difference” in the cost of this year’s ISTEP, though there may be some additional expense with incorporating the new technology-based aspects.
At the Indiana State Board of Education meeting last week, members noted that the cost of the new tests is estimated at $150 million in the next biennium.
Uncertain results
Stranahan doesn’t know what to expect for students’ performance on this new version of the ISTEP. On the 2014 ISTEP, 82.7 percent of Western’s students passed both the math and English language arts portions of the test, the highest combined pass rate among area schools.
“It’s very difficult to compare past ISTEP scores to this new ISTEP,” Stranahan said, adding it’s “worrisome” how the scores could affect schools’ accountability measures, like their letter grades and teachers evaluations.
Knowing there will be another new test for the 2015-16 school year is frustrating for educators, she added.
“That’s been one of our biggest frustrations in this process,” Stranahan said. “We are shifting our instruction to prepare for this new test, but it’s still being developed. We’re preparing for something that hasn’t been finalized yet.”
Helmberger said the new tests will not affect Kokomo Schools’ goals for ISTEP results.
“We always strive for the best,” she said. “We want 100 percent [of students to pass] ultimately, so that’s what we aim for every year.”
At Kokomo Schools, 59.1 percent of students passed both the math and ELA portions of the ISTEP in 2014. Eastern’s combined pass rate was 81.1 percent, Manonaquah’s was 72.3 percent, Northwestern’s was 74.3 percent, Peru’s was 77.5 percent, Taylor’s was 63.7 percent, Tipton’s was 78.5 percent and Tri-Central’s was 57.9 percent.