At a glance
• The Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP+) is a test administered by CTB/McGraw Hill, and it is given in two installments. The applied skills portion of the test is taken in March, and the multiple choice portion is administered in May.

• ISTEP measures student mastery of statewide standards in English/language arts and math in grades 3-8. Fourth- and sixth-graders are also tested in science, while fifth- and seventh-graders are also tested in social studies.

• The number of students who take ISTEP and the improvement in scores from year to year are used by the Indiana Department of Education to determine A-F grades for middle and elementary schools.

• Schools using paper and pencil to take the test have until May 9 to complete it. Online  test-takers have until May 13. Find out more about ISTEP at www.doe.in.gov.
The ISTEP bugs that plagued last year’s test-takers have been worked out for most area schools, but some districts still aren’t yet ready to make the switch to the online exam.

Eastern Greene students are using desktop computers  to take the multiple-choice ISTEP, while MCCSC and R-BB are trying out iPads. Brown County Schools are filling in the answers the old-fashioned way, using pencil and paper.

“There’s no comparison to last year,” said Eastern Green Superintendent Ted Baechtold. Last spring, the test would shut off at random or students would see a spinning globe when they tried to take the ISTEP. “This year, we’ve had none of that,” Baechtold said.

There may have been a little delay from time to time, and in one case, the test restarted right at the beginning, but overall, Eastern Greene has had few concerns this time around, he said.

Learners from the Monroe County Community School Corp. are doing the testing in labs with desktop computers and on iPads, and their experience so far has been similar to that of the Eastern Greene district.
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