Two-thirds of \nchildren taking expanded ISTEP pass \nINDIANAPOLIS -- Two-thirds of students who took a statewide test given to additional grade levels last fall passed, the Indiana Department of Education said.\nThe Department Monday released results of the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress test, or ISTEP, for students in grades 4, 5, 7 and 9.\nThe students took the test in September, marking the first time all Indiana students in grades 3 through 10 took the ISTEP exams.\nMore than 315,000 students in the additional grades took the test, the Department said in a news release.\nFourth-graders led the scoring, with 73 percent passing English and 72 percent passing the math portion of the test.\n"This reinforces that we're on the right track. We're right where we need to be, although we can always do better," said Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed.\nState officials did not release results of a statewide science test given to fifth-graders for the first time last fall. Those scores are expected to be made public next month.\nNone of the scores for grades 4, 5, 7 and 9 will count toward federal No Child Left Behind standards of adequate yearly progress because this was the first year the tests were given in those grades and the process was considered a trial run.\nThe federal law seeks to improve school performance in part by allowing parents to move their children from poorly-performing schools.\nISTEP scores also will be used to place schools into five performance categories under the state accountability rule based on scores from the test this fall.\nReed said testing all grades will help teachers track students' year-to-year progress and better enable them to identify those students who are struggling in the classroom
Judge refuses \nwithdrawal of guilty plea for triggerman\nFORT WAYNE -- A judge refused to allow the man charged with being the triggerman in the death of an abducted teenage girl to withdraw his guilty plea.\nRonrico Hatch said during a hearing Monday that he had been pressured to sign the plea agreement admitting that he was among the group of five people who killed 17-year-old Cheri Sue Hartman of Fort Wayne.\nUnder the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Hatch pleading guilty to murder and accepting a life sentence without parole.\nHatch, 23, said in court that he was told if he did not sign the agreement he would lose his life and never see his young son again. He also asked Allen Superior Court Judge John F. Surbeck Jr. for new defense attorneys, saying he did not believe he had been well represented.\n"Things turned on me," Hatch said. "Things need to come out in trial."\nSurbeck denied Hatch's request and said his attorneys had worked diligently in his defense. Surbeck also said Hatch had testified during a Feb. 11 hearing that he was not pressured or threatened to plead guilty.\nHatch was scheduled to stand trial next month in Hartman's August 2002 death. She was beaten, stripped and shot through the mouth after being made to beg for her life, prosecutors said. Her body was later doused in gasoline, set on fire and left in a field north of Fort Wayne.\nThe four others charged in Hartman's death -- ages 19 to 21 at the time of the attack -- have been convicted or pled guilty to charges.\nTwo have been given prison sentences of at least 70 years, while two others are awaiting sentencing.
Purdue, 4-H clubs seek more than 30 extension officers \nWEST LAFAYETTE -- Purdue University has been looking to fill numerous positions at its extension offices across the state because of several retirements.\nThe Purdue Cooperative Extension Service has openings for extension educators in eight of its county-level offices. More than 30 other support and staff positions need to be filled throughout the system that reaches into all 92 Indiana counties, said David Petritz, the extension service's director.\n"This is a transition time for Extension and a tremendous opportunity for some energetic folks willing to try something new," Petritz said.\nThe extension offices provide local programming and services in the areas of youth and families, agriculture, community development, leadership and 4-H.\nThe educator openings listed on the service's Web site were in Crawford, Decatur, Elkhart, Hamilton, Harrison, Huntington, LaPorte and Marion counties.\nPetritz said the agency's county offices worked with Purdue specialists and local organizations to deal with many community problems.\nProjects undertaken by county extension offices include special recycling days in Scott County to divert hard-to-dispose-of items from landfills and a two-day workplace Spanish course in Marshall County.\nIn northern Indiana's LaGrange County, the extension office organized a steering committee of community leaders to examine issues surrounding the county's population growth.\n"We had the capacity to bring people together, provide expertise and did so with an objective viewpoint," said Merrily Hamp, the LaGrange County extension director.
