Indiana students have low passing 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 3-8 and offers a detailed snapshot of the information a student has retained during his or her 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, Laura 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.
 
Check tomorrow's IDS for the full story.