INDIANAPOLIS — The death sentence state lawmakers this year pronounced on the ISTEP standardized exam likely will not be carried out on July 1, 2017, and Hoosier students almost assuredly will continue taking the troubled test — possibly under a different name — for the foreseeable future.
An educator-led legislative committee that met eight times since May to study student assessments and recommend a new test issued its final report Tuesday without identifying a statewide exam for the 2017 General Assembly to consider adopting.
Instead, the Panel to Study Alternatives to the ISTEP Program simply agreed on 23 general suggestions about what a new test should contain, how it should operate and when it should be given.
"It's a pretty broad recommendation," admitted Nicole Fama, the panel's chairwoman and a principal at an Indianapolis elementary school.
Among the suggestions are a new exam for grades three through eight that adapts an off-the-shelf test used in other states to include components aligned to Indiana's "highest in the nation" academic standards.
The panel said that test should be administered at the end of the school year, instead of in March and April, open-ended questions be graded by Hoosier educators, instead of any person with a bachelor's degree, and results provided to schools, parents and students within one month, which may be technically impossible.
In addition, the panel urged the state to continue funding interim exams selected by local school corporations and again requiring high school students pass separate end-of-course assessments in English, algebra and possibly biology, as well as participate in a career or college-readiness program, to graduate.
State Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, the chairman of the House Education Committee, said given the panel's broad recommendations and the difficulty of quickly getting a new test in place for the 2017-18 school year, the ISTEP exam isn't going away.
"It's going to take some transition time to get to the next assessment," Behning said. "So we're looking at up to maybe a two-year process."
Glenda Ritz, the Democratic state schools chief who recently lost her re-election bid, voted against the study committee recommendations because she said they effectively keep Indiana's expensive, inefficient and time-consuming ISTEP program in place.
"Simply put, continuing the status quo when it comes to testing will continue Indiana's reliance on teaching to the test, rather than focusing on student learning and growth," Ritz said.
"The recommendations adopted today will do nothing to shorten the time of the test and will not save Hoosiers any money nor reduce the high-stakes associated with ISTEP."
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Behning insisted that lawmakers ultimately will adopt a new exam that's different from ISTEP, but said he doesn't want to dump a test on educators and students that's not fully formed.
"The devil is in the details," Behning said. "By pushing it too quickly you're going to end up having problems in terms of implementation. You're better off doing it more deliberatively and making sure you have a quality product in the end."
Indeed, many of the recent problems with ISTEP, including long testing periods and slow results, stem from hasty changes to adapt the exam for Indiana's new academic standards adopted in lieu of the Common Core State Standards and multi-state test Hoosier lawmakers once embraced.
Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Mike Pence even enacted a "hold harmless" law to prevent school ratings from dropping and teachers losing out on bonuses due to lackluster student results on the revised ISTEP during the 2014-15 school year.
Behning said another reason to go slow on an ISTEP replacement is potential changes to federal education law under Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect Pence and the Republican-led Congress that takes office in January.
"In the new administration we might have more flexibility than we have today," he said.
Indiana also soon will have a new governor, Republican Eric Holcomb, and state superintendent of public instruction, Republican Jennifer McCormick, who likely will want a say in the matter.
In any case, Behning proclaimed the state never will just ditch student testing, because it's needed to hold schools and teachers responsible for their performance.
"You can't just eliminate accountability," he said. "We want to make sure that we're moving the envelope forward and closing the achievement gap, and how are you going to know that unless you have some way of monitoring that?"
The Republican-controlled Legislature convenes in January and will have four months to decide how to modify existing law to continue using ISTEP after July 1, and whether to incorporate any of the panel's suggestions in its consideration of a new test.