EDITORIAL: Critics of ISTEP are everywhere

The initials stand for Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress — a process that aims to achieve several goals.

At the most basic level, ISTEP is supposed to track the progress of each individual student who takes it. Teachers then can use the results to help students improve in their weak areas.

The test also evaluates entire schools and school districts to see if students are learning what they are supposed to know at their grade levels. The state gives schools quality grades ranging from A to F.

Finally, the results are designed to be used to evaluate individual teachers, based on the scores of their students. The evaluations can affect teacher pay increases.

Superintendents and teachers across the state have been complaining about ISTEP for years, but never more loudly than in 2015. Changes to the testing system over the past year appear to have made it even worse. Among the new problems, a revision of the test reportedly led to a drastic drop in scores.

We reported that local superintendents have joined a chorus of critics across the state. Here are some examples of what they’re saying elsewhere.

Superintendents in Morgan County sent a letter to parents and their community last week with this message:

“We do not believe that our communities are below standard; we do not believe that one test measures our children. We do believe this process to be a flawed attempt to implement a legislative agenda.”

Superintendents in Greene County joined in a similar letter to parents and citizens. It said the test scores “are reflecting a false reality for our county and the entire state.”

Four superintendents in Dubois County also combined to send a letter to parents, calling on them to speak up.

“It’s time for a change,” the letter said. “We encourage students, educators and community members to let their voices be heard.”

Legislators may be growing numb to constant complaints from superintendents and teachers, so it could be more effective if ordinary Hoosiers demanded action.

However, sometimes change can backfire. The Dubois County superintendents say the latest problems with ISTEP began when Indiana adopted new state education standards in July 2014, one month before the start of the school year.

In an editorial last week, the Herald-Times of Bloomington offered a list of the problems that snowballed for ISTEP after adoption of the new standards:

“… schools received new standards late, too late for effective teaching to students; there were computer glitches with testing that have become maddeningly predictable; a new scoring standard was introduced late; school corporations have just received their preliminary scores too late to adjust for the next tests in March; and the fallout from low scores is huge through penalties for schools and evaluations of teachers.”

The problems of ISTEP are clear. What to do about them, besides complain, is not so clear.

Indiana can’t simply stop testing students. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires it to receive federal education money.

Because they don’t trust ISTEP for evaluating individual students, many school districts use a different test known as NWEA for that purpose. But in the past, state officials have said they can’t adopt the NWEA test to replace ISTEP, because it does not meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

As a start, Indiana can avoid last-minute tinkering with ISTEP, and it can demand that its testing contractors perform competently in return for a multi-million-dollar fee.

For this year, Indiana can follow Gov. Mike Pence’s recommendation that the disputed ISTEP results should not penalize any school district or teacher financially.

The Herald-Times of Bloomington reached this conclusion: “It’s questionable just how fair it is to label students, teachers, schools and corporations based on standardized testing in the first place. It would be ridiculous to label them based on a testing process that’s unfair and results that aren’t reliable.”