INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana students could soon be taking a new test at the end of their school year.
State lawmakers have been looking for a replacement for the ISTEP test, and the proposal for that replacement has cleared its first hurdle.
Students would take the ILEARN during a single testing window at the end of each school year.
Under the proposal, the state would replace ISTEP with Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network or ILEARN starting in the 2019 school year.
A panel was formed last year to dissect the ISTEP test and try to figure out if there was a way to improve the current test.
That panel recommended that the state implements a “proven and reliable” test in its place.
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Adam Bisesi teaches seventh-grade language arts for the Mount Vernon Community School Corporation. He said he’s trying to prepare his students and ease their anxiety over their upcoming ISTEP testing.
“We’re doing all we can to promote to do the little things to encourage them,” said Bisesi
And while the test isn’t necessarily bad, Bisesi said that the turnaround is so slow that it doesn’t help him to help his students. He didn’t receive last year’s results until November, nearly halfway through the school year.
“I’d love going into the new school year knowing where the students are at so that I can start helping them day one to achieve their goals and also my goals for them and just let me know what I need to focus on,” said Bisesi.
The union representing teachers questions whether the new exam will provide meaningful assessment but teachers working for Mt. Vernon schools say they’ll adapt to whatever the replacement is.
“What it looks like, what it feels like, what it’s named is one thing,” said Shane Robbins. “But we still have Indiana standards that we’re responsible for, and we’re responsible to teach.”
The bill will now move to the full House for a vote which could come as soon as next week.
