INDIANAPOLIS - A 23-member committee tasked with replacing ISTEP agreed on a vision statement for the new suite of testing assessments but remains divided about what the goals of those assessments should be. With just four months left before the recommendations are due to the General Assembly, committee members are still in disagreement over what the tests should cover, what accountability needs to look like and what students need to know.
The committee spent most of the Tuesday discussion on college and career readiness, one of the goals listed in the vision statement. The new Every Student Succeeds Act passed by the federal government mandates a test for 10th-graders to determine college and career readiness.
Some committee members, including State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, are upset over the required test. Ritz doesn’t think one test can encapsulate the large gap between students, some of whom may want to go onto college while others may want to enter the workforce.
“I’m angry about it, quite frankly,” Ritz said. “I wish the federal government hadn’t said we need a test.”
Karla Egan, with Indiana’s Technical Advisory Committee, said some students can use the SAT or ACT as a college-readiness evaluator, but warned against schools using those tests as a general qualifying exam for all students.
“Those tests can’t do everything and they weren’t designed to,” Egan said.
“They were designed to tell colleges if a student is ready for their school.”
Egan stressed to the committee the importance of finalizing the goals of a college- or career-readiness test before doing anything. Egan said a customized assessment would take at least two years to design and implement: a sentiment the committee has heard from several other experts.
The issue of teacher accountability once again reared its head Tuesday.
Jean Russell, a teacher in the Southwest Allen County school district, said tying so many accountability factors to the ISTEP test is what ultimately ruined it. She said school grades, teacher pay and student progression has led to ISTEP dominating every day of the school year.
“All of the things were piling on to this one test is ruining it,” Russell said.
Russell said something needs to be done about the accountability in whatever proposal the committee ultimately makes.
Nicole Fama, the committee chair, said she isn’t sure that’s the job of the committee. She said the committee is tasked with considering the affects of accountability but shouldn’t make any recommendations. That drew criticism from Ritz, who said the committee could recommend whatever it wants if such recommendations are tied to the test in some way. While ESSA requires accountability standards, it is largely left up to the states to decide what that accountability looks like.
Ritz said the committee could make recommendations that would then be taken up by the Indiana General Assembly, where lawmakers could do as they pleased.
The committee has meetings scheduled for September, October and November. Dec. 1 is the deadline for all recommendations.