The Associated Press has an article reporting on edits suggested by a State Board of Education official and apparently adopted by supposedly independent consultants hired to evaluate Indiana’s most recent ISTEP debacle. The substance of the report was apparently not changed, but the “messaging” was. The example featured prominently has the original version stating:
“It is safe to say that the 2015 ISTEP+ program is a work in progress, put in place quickly and without the usual procedures (e.g., field testing) used with most new assessment programs.”
State Board of Education executive director John Snethen challenged that sentence, asking “why is it safe to say this? This is an example of a statement that could cause concern.” The sentence was removed from the draft. Snethen did not comment for the story. The SBOE assures us that his involvement was purely about making the highly technical report understandable for us rubes. (I paraphrase). The consulting company was a little more forthcoming and indicated that SBOE was concerned about messaging. Where possible, SBOE would prefer a “glass half full” message. I’m sure they would.
This test was in trouble from the start. The value of these tests is dubious in the first place. Then the State dumped Common Core for reasons that seem to have much less to do with its substance than with an emotional response to a perceived “federal takeover.” This, in turn, caused the state to rush out an untested test — on which we’ve wasted many millions of dollars without producing anything of value to students. (Remember them?)
The changes made by Snethen also suggest the Pence administration is cautious of possible backlash to the new academic standards, which were put in place after Indiana became the first state to withdraw from the Common Core standards in 2014. Conservative critics say the national math and English benchmarks that describe what students should know after completing each grade amount to a federal takeover of education, and Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana officials also have taken steps to drop Common Core.
. . .
The ISTEP+ test, which features Indiana-specific academic standards, was hastily rolled out in early 2015. Educators balked, saying it would take a staggering 12 hours to complete; the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a bill shortening the exam before students ever took the test. And some students who later took it online reported computer glitches, which were found to have an impact on their performance.
Others have raised questions about whether the test was scored properly or even an accurate assessment, leading the state Board of Education to call for the investigation, which state officials said would be independent when it launched April.
Half-empty or half-filled, we should probably be asking what it is that the glass is full of.
But it did give Mike Pence a good bullet point for his 2016 presidential campaign. (Remember when that was a thing? Yeah, me too.)
It’s sad… the same officials who complain about how government mucks everything up don’t seem to have the self-awareness of how their increased involvement in education has fulfilled their own beliefs.
Based on what I see out of the Statehouse, the current philosophy appears to be that if the teacher’s unions just ceased to exist, all of our education problems would go away.
Mr. Masson, thanks for this post. It’s quite timely for me, as we have a third grader in a West Lafayette school who is now preparing, or it might be better said, being intensely prepared by his teachers and the school’s staff to take the ISTEP. I am thinking about writing a long letter to the editor when the test is over and I can make a better assessment, but I’ve made some early judgements.
You can put me down as a parent who thought uniform testing of students and evaluation of schools was a good thing. I believe in accountability, and thought testing might lead to improvement in some of our troubled schools. I fear that, not unlike our government leaders, I drew what seemed like a logical conclusion from a position of pretty much complete ignorance.
Preparation for taking the ISTEP begins in second grade with teachers administering some “practice tests” and talking to parents about some of the challenges around ISTEP. Once a child is actually in third grade it’s clear that the primary focus is ISTEP. It’s not that other learning stops, it’s just that there’s a constant sense of the ISTEP hanging over the classroom like the sword of Damocles. These kids are far, far more intensely prepped than I or my two older kids were for the SAT. That atmosphere can’t be healthy.
Looking at our leaders in Indianapolis, it’s safe to say that no one has exactly covered themselves in glory.
Starting with the most obvious point first, who, on God’s green earth, would ever think that a 12 hour test for elementary school children is a good idea? Clearly members of a large committee each put in their own pet points and topics, and then no one edited the thing.
While that was going on the political controversy between Democrat Ritz and Republican Pence (and most everyone else) created a climate where any critique would instantly become a political football, and any admission of a problem by the Board of Education a PR disaster. Snethen asking “Why is it safe to say this?” Worrying about what is “safe to say” versus clear communication and a focus on improving education pretty much sums the Statehouse problem up in a nutshell. I’m not picking sides between the D’s and R’s, I’m just saying that their political battles should not turn into our children’s classroom problems.
In a sane world Indiana would take advantage of the recent Federal changes to No Child Left Behind, drop the ISTEP into a trash can and start over. Yes, we’ve spent a lot of money on it, but let’s try this once to not get caught up in the “sunk cost” fallacy. That money spent on ISTEP was wasted, and it’s not ever coming back no matter what happens now or in the future. Let’s worry instead about taking the right steps going forward to improve education in Indiana.
I’m not ready to make any detailed prescriptions until I see how it plays out for my own child and his class, but I do think a good start would be for state level focus to shift from teacher accountability to holding districts accountable for student outcomes at a broad level while recognizing that the needs and challenges of an inner city Indianapolis district and a district centered on a Big 10 college town are completely different, requiring different levels of resource allocation. Certainly districts need to hold teachers accountable, but testing is one tool in the box, not the be all and end all.
As an initial prescription, I’d say no test can be longer than two hours for elementary students and four hours for high school students, and that no “grades” for schools be based solely or even mostly on testing.
I do recognize that so long as teachers unions are a significant source of funding for one political party and not the other the political issues will be intense. I think that visionary Republican leadership could overcome that, and maybe even get some of that funding for their own party, but probably not in the foreseeable future. In the mean time we have to separate the political combat from doing the right thing for our kids.
Thanks again for sharing your point of view, and tolerating people like me kibitzing.
So often around here, the value and thoughtfulness of the comments far exceeds that of the original post. This is one of those. Thanks!
As luck would have it, tonight (February 17, 2016) at 6 p.m. in West Lafayette — at Happy Hollow Elementary, the joint school boards of West Lafayette, Tippecanoe School Corp., and Lafayette School Corp. are meeting. It’s formally a joint school board meeting, but mostly it will be the three superintendents discussing the prospects of a locally controlled alternative to ISTEP. Dave Bangert, writing for the Journal & Courier, had an article on this meeting a couple of days ago.
And, full disclosure — I have recently become a member of the West Lafayette School Board. But, in no way am I purporting to speak for that organization.
As a leader of one of those teachers unions, I’d like to point out that ISTA has backed both State Rep Truitt and Sen Ron Alting, both Republicans, because they listen and work towards compromise. In addition, I believe State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sue Ellen Reed -a Republican- was supported widely by teachers due to her excellent service and true understanding of public schools.
Thank you for correcting me on the R versus D aspect of this issue. The political situation is better than I thought!
Well, the partisan divide might not be as grim as it looks on the surface. Certainly there is a lot of cooperation in Tippecanoe County. But, I suppose it bears mentioning that Superintendent Reed was forced out to make way for Tony Bennett, Rep. Truitt is not running for another term, and Sen. Alting has joked that his seat might as well be out in the parking lot because of how often he’s bucked the party.
Many professional practice areas are guided–and even determined–by the research, Medicine, psychology and education are among them. If politicians began dictating how medicine or clinical psychology should be practiced across the board, professionals and the public would be stunned. Just because you have been treated by a physician for a problem or experienced 12 years of education, it doesn’t mean you know enough about these areas to tell people “how to do it”, particularly when it comes to the nexus of measurement and teaching. The research in psychological/educational measurement and how it should be used in education is abundantly clear that the politicians don’t know what they are talking about, and that ideology that directs their decisions runs contrary to what should be done. It’s unfortunate that those who have the gold make the rules.