As the old Billy Joel song goes, “it’s a matter of trust.”
Trusting teachers, that is. Unfortunately, the actions of Indiana’s political leadership show a lack of trust in those classroom educators. As a result, the state bears the constant, unpredictable, wildly cost-inefficient and creativity-squelching byproducts of its standardized test — the infamous ISTEP+. The test’s most redeeming quality seems to be “accountability,” at least in terms of the repetition of that word by governors and lawmakers. That means accountability for teachers and administrators, to ensure they’re earning their paychecks.
A national reform movement found willing listeners among Indiana legislators and helped elevate ISTEP+ into a high-stakes test by linking it to schools’ A-to-F performance grades and teacher evaluations and pay. Part of that bond between reformers and legislators was a mutual distaste for teacher unions and an existing system that, in their view, shielded “bad teachers” and “failing schools.”
The ISTEP+ would become — in their thinking — the unbiased, numbers-driven linchpin of their reformed Indiana educational system. They essentially replaced trust in the classroom-teacher-based system with trust in the standardized-test-based system.
That choice is clearly not working. The stress, confusion and frustration experienced at North Clay Middle School this month illuminates the flaws in building a state’s educational foundation on standardized testing. The scores for the 2015 ISTEP+ showed that none of the 250 sixth-graders at North Clay passed the test. Understandably “unhappy and very upset,” Clay Community Schools superintendent Jeff Fritz appropriately stated that such a zero-percent pass rate would be “impossible.” The Department of Education blamed a “sync” problem and said such glitches occur every year; the affected tests will be re-scored, the DOE added.
The administration of the ISTEP+ — overseen by corporations under 8-figure contracts — has been rife with problems statewide. At North Clay last spring, students, teachers and administrators dealt with kids being booted offline while taking the test on school-issued laptops. Some could not finish it as planned. A guidance counselor had to stay in frequent phone contact with the testing company, CTB-McGraw Hill. The superintendent called the situation “a debacle.”
And now, the school staff, students and parents are being told that none of their sixth-graders passed.
In an op-ed column published in the Tribune-Star and other Hoosier newspapers this month, former Indiana State Board of Education member Andrea Neal wrote that “it’s time for Indiana lawmakers to scrap ISTEP+.” She labeled the test “nothing but trouble,” and added that “it’s taking valuable time away from classroom learning.” ISTEP+ has morphed into the sole barometer of student achievement in Indiana, despite being logistically “worthless” because spring scores don’t arrive until fall or winter — too late to send a student into the new school year with a plan to attack shortcomings. The test lasts nine hours, Neal points out; it had been 12 hours, basically the same as the Indiana Bar exam for lawyers.
It’s a high-stakes, 800-pound gorilla in the classroom from bell to bell, 182 days a year. Teachers must teach to the test. Students must study for the test. Any curriculum that strays from that focus — a concept known as “creativity” — could cost the school, teachers and pupils.
Indiana needs to pursue a less expensive and promptly scored test, cultivate renewed trust in teachers and prioritize learning over test-taking.