WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Indiana schools have a new standardized test called ILEARN, which has replaced the ISTEP. Based on student test results, Indiana officials award a letter grade to each school, and the grades are linked to teacher evaluations and teacher pay.
But scores on the ILEARN were so low that Monroe County School Superintendent Judi DeMuth exempted educators from the negative impact of the new standardized test.
Only 48.7% of MCCSC students passed ILEARN’s English Language Arts and Math assessments. At Richland-Bean Blossom Community Schools, only 47.4% passed. Still, both school corporations came in above the statewide rate of 37.1%.
MCCSC’s highest performing school was Childs Elementary, where 72% of students passed both the English Language Arts and Math assessments. But nine MCCSC schools had fewer than 50% of their students pass. For example, only 22.4% of Fairview Elementary students passed, and only 32.4% of students at Clear Creek Elementary passed.
Compared to recent years’ ISTEP scores, MCCSC’s ILEARN scores are dramatically lower.
In a statement dated August 28, Jennifer McCormick, Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, called for legislators to exempt the 2018-2019 scores. McCormick said the scores “do not provide a true reflection of the performance of Indiana’s schools.”
Low ILEARN scores, and the A through F ratings that they incur, could hurt teacher evaluations. The State Department of Education has voted to postpone releasing school grades so that legislators have time to respond to the call for a “hold harmless” year.
Cathy Fuentes Rohwer, an education advocate who serves on the state board of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, questioned whether the test accurately reflects how kids learn. “It just continues to demoralize teachers and they are pushed out of the field, “ she said. “I’m hopeful that most school districts will speak out to the legislature and the governor against this grading system of schools and ask them to support educating the whole child, and put the breaks on the test.”
MCCSC Superintendent DeMuth is calling for legislators to give school corporations the money used for ILEARN testing “to pay teachers and staff.”
