Pence, a Republican, said he was working with GOP lawmakers on legislation to prevent teachers from being negatively affected by the lower ISTEP scores, which were anticipated as the state transitions to more rigorous academic standards.
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The Indiana State Board of Education could vote this week on setting the minimum scores that students need to pass the ISTEP standardized tests they took last spring. The committee will hear suggestions from several education experts about what they think is causing the decline and teachers, and how lawmakers can address the issue during the next session. “Unfortunately, it comes after a year and a half of uncertainty and worry for our students, teachers and schools that was entirely unnecessary”.
Ritz has always been an advocate of pausing school A-F accountability grades for the 2015-16 school year due to this shift in state practices.
The legislative committee will continue to work to come up with solution.
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Ritz has warned for months about many more students failing this year’s ISTEP exam because of more hard state standards, which were created after Republican legislators and Pence withdrew Indiana from the national Common Core standards last year. The state is far behind its typical schedule of releasing ISTEP scores.
