Indiana students have low pass rates on statewide test

Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett released the results of the 2009 Indiana Statewide Testing for Education Progress last week, revealing that Indiana students were challenged by the new ISTEP+ test and its benchmarks.

The ISTEP+ is administered to about 500,000 students in grades three through eight and offers a detailed snapshot of the information a student has retained during their academic year.

The test helps educators and parents identify the academic strengths and weaknesses of Indiana students.

Indiana students had statewide pass rates of 70 percent in English/language arts, 71 percent in mathematics, 62 percent in science and 59 percent in social studies.

This year marked the initiation of the Indiana Department of Education’s decision to move the ISTEP+ test from the fall to the spring. The move was based on requests from teachers and parents and is meant to show a more accurate reflection of what students learned during the school year, said Press Secretary for the Indiana Department of Education Lauren Auld.

“For thirteen years the ISTEP+ was given in the fall, and because of the long summer break, a lot of students had not retained what they had learned from the year before,” Auld said.

The ISTEP+ was changed this year to help provide a faster turnover of test results. Change also included the addition of Social Studies and Science to the ISTEP+ at wthe request of parents and administrators, Auld said.

“The test used to be given in one big bulk,” Auld said, “This time they’re given the open-ended questions and essay questions one week and the multiple choice maybe three weeks later.”

The test results are returned before the end of the academic year and are meant to pinpoint where students are struggling academically, Auld said.

“I think that having parents be able to see where a student is struggling before the year ends makes it a lot easier to address matters before the students moves onto the next grade level,” Auld said.

Despite the low pass rates of Indiana students, 21 elementary schools scored above the pass rate benchmark Dr. Bennett set as the goal for Indiana students.

At DuPont Elementary School in Jefferson County, students scored above the 90 percent benchmark in English/Language Arts and Mathematics.

The school uses a method called Diagnostic Assessment that up until now has been optional for elementary schools, Auld said.

“It’s a year-round smaller ISTEP that tracks students’ academic process,” Auld said. “Teachers give mini-exams to make sure students are progressing throughout the year.”

DuPont Principal Karlyn Lamb attributes his students’ success on the ISTEP+ to individual focus on each child.

“We’re looking at the data of every single child,” Lamb said. “If we see that a child is performing lower than what we believe is necessary, we begin to ask ourselves what kind of programming we need to do to help that individual child.”

For the rest of Indiana, the Department of Education has set up summits in reading and math to try and improve Indiana’s academic scores and match them with the state’s academic standards.

In October, the Indiana Department of Education will host the first ever Indiana Reading Summit to address concerns about Indiana students’ reading levels.

In his podcast, Dr. Tony Bennett said Indiana has to figure out how to move students from learning to read, to reading to learn.

“The reading summit’s goals is to ignite discussion on creative approaches to literary instruction,” Bennett said. “The reading summit is just one more way to make sure all students reach their highest potential.”