ISTEP 'debacle': 0 pass rate 'impossible,' Clay Community Schools superintendent says

But state officials said scoring issues at the school are still being resolved, and that it’s not yet known what the school’s sixth-grade pass/fail rate is. CTB-McGraw Hill administers the tests and oversees the scoring for the state.

About 250 North Clay students who were sixth-graders last year are affected.

The district has received test scores for all of its other students, Fritz said Wednesday.

Fritz said it would be “impossible” for no sixth-grader to have passed the test. “I was principal of North Clay last year. I know those students — it’s a good group.” Prior to becoming superintendent this summer, he was principal at North Clay for two years. “My first year, we had the highest test scores in school history. Now, we face this.”

Meanwhile, parents who have checked their students’ test results online have been concerned when they see that scores indicate failure or “undetermined” results. One parent, who asked to remain unnamed, said when she went to check her child’s scores, the results indicated her son didn’t pass English/language arts and that the math score was undetermined.

Other parents described the same results and received no explanation for what happened. “They need to get the system straight before they put kids through it,” the parent said. Plus, parents weren’t told there was a scoring problem.

The parent also said, “I’m frustrated and disheartened the kids and teachers go through the process of testing and follow the rules and do what they are supposed to do, but then it’s not scored accurately. Does it really reflect what my son’s ability is?” she said.

Administration of the 2015 ISTEP test was a “debacle,” says Fritz. His understanding was that scores were lost, although the Indiana Department of Education said Wednesday that’s not the case. The district’s results show the sixth-grade with a zero percent pass rate because “we have no scores.”

“No scores have been lost,” Daniel Altman, Indiana Department of Education spokesman. “There were some that did not ‘sync up,’ joining parts 1 and part 2. ... Every year, there is always somewhere that happens. Where that happens, they get an automatic rescore.”

On Thursday, Altman further clarified that CTB “is looking into what caused the specific sync issue.” One possibility for problems could be that the assignment number for Parts 1 and 2 of the test may have been different.

The testing company must manually match up Parts 1 and 2 with the students who took the test, he said. From an identification perspective, the assignment numbers may not have been the same.

“For any child this happened to, CTB will give an automatic re-score” so students can get full credit for their answers, he said.

While Altman couldn’t comment on specifics, the “syncing” issue could make it appear that students have failed, but until the process is complete, it’s too early to say a student has failed.

“CTB is working to address it,” Altman said. “Right now, CTB can’t say what the cause is — whether it’s a local or CTB issue.”

All students at North Clay took tests online using school-issued laptops, and the school experienced many technical problems, including being kicked offline while students were taking the test, Fritz said.

Other students, not just sixth-graders, also were kicked off as they attempted to complete the test, he said. Some could not finish it. A guidance counselor was frequently on the phone with the testing company

“We had many issues we dealt with during testing last year,” Fritz said.

The testing system “has failed our students and teachers,” Fritz said. He said he’s reached out to DOE and legislators, and he’s called the governor’s office. “I’m unhappy and very upset,” the superintendent said.

The district is trying to get to the bottom of the problem before it notifies parents. “Our teachers know. We’ve not sent a blanket email out yet. We hope we will get this resolved. We hate to put everyone in panic mode,” Fritz said Wednesday.

Robert Boltinghouse, North Clay principal, would not confirm a report that test results accessed by parents indicated sixth-graders failed English-language arts and sixth-grade math scores were “undetermined,” which counts as failing.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” the principal said.

“Undetermined” might result from students not completing a test section, or providing only partial answers — not enough to determine a score. In the state’s eyes, an undetermined score is the same as failure, he said.

“The process is still getting worked out,” he said.

The school has been working with concerned parents and kept the building open one evening to assist them with requesting re-scores, which parents can do online.

The school had 25 to 30 parents call every day over the last week with some type of question, questioning a score or requesting a re-score, Boltinghouse said.

“We have fielded numerous calls. It’s frustrating. These are issues we didn’t create at North Clay,” he said. The problem is the testing system, and “we are on front line for their mess up.”