General Assembly Moving Quickly To Shorten Spring ISTEP+

House Speaker Brian Bosma introduced a resolution Tuesday to reassure schools that legislators will take prescribed steps to shorten the spring ISTEP+ test. (Photo Credit: Gretchen Frazee/WTIU)

With the window for students to sit for the first portion of the spring ISTEP+ test quickly approaching, the General Assembly is moving fast to move proposed changes through.

Following a flurry of outrage from parents and educators regarding the extended length of this spring’s test, Governor Mike Pence signed an executive order last week hiring two national consultants to help shorten the test. Those experts presented their proposed changes to the State Board of Education on Friday, which adopted the suggestions, including the following ideas:

• Release only a portion of test questions this coming summer, for teachers and students to use as practice problems for next year’s test,
• Cut the number of questions each student answers on this year’s test, and
• Cancel this year’s social studies portion for fifth and seventh graders (subtracting one hour from the test).

By law, those changes have to be approved by the General Assembly. In order to fast-track that process, two things happened in the House today:

1. The House unanimously passed a resolution pledging to shorten the test. This serves as a promise that lawmakers will make the recommended changes, allowing the Department of Education to move forward with releasing appropriate guidance to schools. It alleviates the stress of waiting for the legislature to go through the prescribed legal process to approve those changes.
2. As the first step in that legal process, the House Committee on Education amended and approved a bill coming out of the Senate (SB62, a measure originally intended to allow schools to contract out for physical education), tacking on the three state board provisions described above.

The House is expected to pass SB 62 during its session on Monday. Then, all that’s left is for the Senate to concur and the governor to sign off on the bill. House Speaker Brian Bosma says he thinks all this could happen as soon as Monday afternoon.

The testing window opens for schools Wednesday, Feb, 25.