Lessie Lennon holds her son Macintyre as they talk about the preparations he has been undergoing at his school for the ISTEP test. Staff photo by Jeremy Hogan
Lessie Lennon doesn’t want her kids taking ISTEP, but she also doesn’t want her children’s schools to be penalized because of low participation in the standardized test. The dilemma she’s found herself in due to the state-mandated testing divides schools and families and puts kids in the middle, she says.
“It’s pitting of schools and families against each other. I’m acting in my child’s interest, defending their right to an education, and testing is not an education,” she said.
Many Indiana schools started their first round of ISTEP testing on Monday, an exam that students in third to eighth grade take annually. This year, 10th-graders also are taking ISTEP. The test covers English/language arts, math, science and social studies, and requires students to write essays as well as respond to multiple-choice questions. There are also technology enhanced items that ask students to click and drag information in order to respond to the test.
To complete every portion of the test takes days, and Lennon says for some of her kids, ISTEP causes stress and anxiety.
Her daughter Maiara, who is in sixth grade at the Bloomington Project School, said she cried the last time she took the ISTEP test.
“It really stressed me out,” Maiara said. “We shouldn’t have (to take ISTEP). It’s useless. It’s a weapon used against teachers and schools.”
It’s not just the pressure of taking a high-stakes test that makes Lennon want to opt her kids out of it, she also says the results of the exam are not useful.
“We just threw out last year’s ISTEP scores. They told us nothing about our child,” Lennon said.
To prevent her kids from having to take ISTEP this year, Lessie Lennon contacted their schools and informed them that she wanted her children to be given an alternative such as self-directed learning.
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