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Ritz says ISTEP testing time can be shortened by 3 hours

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TOM DAVIES, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana is eliminating some questions from the standardized exam thousands of students will soon begin taking to cut about three hours from the testing time, under a plan announced Friday by the state schools superintendent.

State schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz told the State Board of Education on Friday that her Department of Education could cut about 2 ½ hours from the language arts section of this year's ISTEP+ exams and 40 minutes from mathematics sections by reducing the number of questions that are being reviewed for use in future tests.

The moves come after parents and educators protested that testing times for the exam had doubled to about 12 hours after a redesign to align with new state standards that were created after Indiana withdrew from the national Common Core standards last year.

Ritz told the State Board of Education that she believed the changes, made in consultation with two outside experts hired this week by Gov. Mike Pence, could be implemented before about 450,000 students in grades 3 through 8 begin taking the tests later this month.

"I want to bring clarity to it," she said. "I want to make sure that we're reducing the test at the same time we're going to have validity and reliability."

The ISTEP+ exam is an annual test that measures student growth. Its scores are used to grade schools on the state's "A-F" system, evaluate teachers and determine their pay.

The state had hoped to use this year as a transition for the new test, but the U.S. Department of Education rejected that request. As a result, the new exam also includes pilot questions, which state education officials say will now be split up so that students face half as many.

Edward Roeber, one of the consultants hired by Pence, said he believed the test would still be reliable and called the changes planned by Ritz a "substantial reduction" in testing time from the previous 12-hour level.

"My goal was to get to a single digit, instead of double digits, and we'll accomplish that," he said.

Ritz said she would seek to cut another hour in testing time for students in grades 5 and 7 by suspending the social studies portion of the exam. That step will require approval from the General Assembly because the test is set in state law.

Friday's action follows a week of squabbling among Ritz's Department of Education, the governor's office and legislative leaders about why this year's exam is so much longer and what steps might be taken to shorten it.

Ritz proposed a one-year suspension of using the ISTEP+ results for school and teacher evaluations, but board members voted to remove that from the agenda.

Pence and Republican legislative leaders had said this week they wouldn't support such action.

 
 

 

 

 

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