INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO/AP): The results of this year’s ISTEP exam is already drawing criticism from educators.
Only 52 percent of students passed both English and math portions of the ISTEP exam, down from 53.5 percent who passed both tests in 2015.
Indiana superintendents want state officials to suspend school accountability grades for a second year.
State legislators last January approved a bill preventing schools from being assigned a lower A-F grade after student scores plunged on the 2015 ISTEP plunged with the revised standards.
Northwest Allen County Schools Superintendent Chris Himsel testified to the State Board of Education that there were too many “glitches” in the test’s administration to use it to calculate school grades.
“The most recent administration had still-unexplained interruptions and errors,” he said.
Fort Wayne Community Schools Board President Mark GiaQuinta minced no words when telling WOWO News about this year’s exam.
“The whole thing is just a colossal disaster,” he said. “There are glitches in the test, like the calculator function. Teachers are then blamed for failing results, and their pay is tied to those results.”
State School Superintendent Glenda Ritz said there’s no guarantee the federal Department of Education would allow a waiver two years in a row.
A combined average of 18 percent of Fort Wayne Community Schools 10th graders passed both the Math and English portions of the test.
Only six out of 31 FWCS elementary schools had more than 50 percent of students pass both sections.
RELATED: ISTEP replacement panel divided over offering specific plan
You can read the full reports below.
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