School’s Out, Major Decisions Persist
As the vast majority of Hoosier elementary, middle and high school students take a break for the summer, several big issues affecting their future continue to swirl. One of the most significant is the process to select a successor to the ISTEP exam. Chalkbeat Indiana Staff Reporter Shaina Cavazos says a 23-member panel charged with recommending an alternative is continuing to "wrestle" with how the new test will look, what it will do and what will the results teach us. A new A-to-F rating model for schools will take effect this year, as well. In an interview on Inside INdiana Business Television, Cavazos talked about how the state will also have to grapple with adjustments at the federal level.
She says the new grading system coincides with tweaks to federal regulations. "Even though this model wants to focus more on how students are growing and not just at one test score snapshot in time, there probably will still be changes as we figure out what the federal government wants and how we can make sure we have everything in our model, too."
Cavazos says school and district leaders will spend the next school year preparing for the successor to the lame duck No Child Left Behind Act, called the Every Child Succeeds Act. The state, meanwhile, will be working on all the facets of what it will take to comply with the changes.
The ISTEP replacement panel will have until December 1 to make recommendations to the General Assembly. Cavazos says the group, which is made up of stakeholders including teachers, professors and administrators for throughout the state, has completed two meetings since they were selected in April. Members of the panel were chosen by Governor Mike Pence, Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-88) and Senate Pro Tempore David Long (R-16).
Cavazos says the upcoming gubernatorial election could also complicate the picture. Depending on who wins, she believes the direction that assessments ultimately take could stand to be affected the most.