Student progress model revamped

The Indiana Department of Education unveiled a new student growth model last week, focusing on measuring growth on the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress tests given each year to students in grades three through eight.

“Every child should be able to walk into school and expect at least one year of growth in one year of instruction,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett. “This puts a definite value on what growth is.”

Instead of looking at whether students pass or fail the ISTEPs, the new model tracks progress using the student growth percentile method, said IDE Press Secretary Lauren Auld.

“Our current system only gives a snapshot of student achievement,” she said. “The growth model will compare each individual student to all students who begin at the same level of achievement.”

By dividing students into categories and looking at their individual achievements, the model accounts for all students.

“In our current system, if all you were thinking about is kids jumping over the bar, as an educator you’ll concentrate on kids that are close to the bar,” Bennett said. “This system makes us focus on all kids.”

Martha McCarthy, chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at IU’s School of Education, said she believes the new model closes gaps in measuring student progress.

The new method considers variables the other model didn’t, McCarthy said.
Auld said teachers welcome the reform, adding that they’ve been asking for it for awhile.

Bennett said he believes a portal called “The Learning Connection” sets Indiana’s growth model apart from others. It allows parents to view their child’s growth and acts as a networking site for teachers.

“If I’m a sixth-grade teacher, I can get on it and look at other school’s aggregate math patterns and call that teacher,” he said.

Statewide teacher communication is crucial to evaluate teachers and help them improve, Bennett said. We should see what other schools are doing to get high growth scores, he said.

“Let’s begin to share best practices,” he said.

The ISTEP was moved from the fall to the spring to measure what students learned during the school year rather than what they remembered from before, Bennett said.

Designed after Colorado’s growth model, Bennett said Indiana will be the nation’s poster child for growth models.

“Indiana will have the most comprehensive look at individual student growth in the United States by the end of this school year,” he said.

Indiana’s growth model is part of the state’s application to “Race to the Top,” a competitive federal stimulus grant for education funding.

Indiana’s share would be about $500 million, Bennett said, adding that he hopes Indiana will be at the cutting edge of education reform.

“I want Indiana to be the Silicon Valley of education reform,” he said. “When people want to make systemic, bold reform happen in a state, we want them to look right at Indiana.”