Letter To ISTEP Panel From Superintendents: Don’t Rush The Process

A group of superintendents from around the state wrote a letter this week criticizing the way the process of re-writing the state assessment is being handles.

The Indiana Urban Schools Association issued the letter, which is aimed at legislatures and the state’s ISTEP panel. The panel, created during the 2016 General Assembly, charged a group of educators, parents and state policy makers to create a recommendation for how to replace the ISTEP.

This panel has met for the last six months, and has a Dec. 1 deadline to issue the recommendation, but hasn’t come up with concrete plans.

The letter expresses concern that this panel is trying to create a test without working along with a similar group establishing the state’s updated A-F system.

IUSA Executive Director Hardy Murphy says he hopes the letter reminds legislators and the panel about how important this decision is, and why it’s valuable not to rush anything.

“What could happen is we replicate the very unfortunate experience that we’ve had so far with the assessments and we don’t think those experiences were good for anyone,” Murphy says.

The ISTEP panel next meets Nov. 15.

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