Indiana has hired an assessment expert from Michigan to evaluate the state’s standardized test and recommend ways to shorten it amid an outcry over a sharp increase in the time needed to take the exam, Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday.
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana has hired an assessment expert from Michigan to evaluate the state’s standardized test and recommend ways to shorten it amid an outcry over a sharp increase in the time needed to take the exam, Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday.
Pence said Edward Roeber would review the ISTEP+ exam that will be administered to about 450,000 students in grades 3 through 8 this spring and make recommendations for shortening it by Feb. 20. He also will consult on the 2016 exam and any necessary pilot tests that arise from his recommendations.
His contract calls for him to be paid up to $22,000.
Roeber is assessment director of the Michigan Assessment Consortium and has helped many states design and implement large-scale assessment programs.
Pence’s move came a day after he issued an executive order requiring that the exam be shortened after parents and educators protested over testing times that could top 12 hours.
The high-stakes test was revamped to align with new academic standards adopted last April after Indiana became the first state to pull out of the national Common Core guidelines. Student test scores are used to calculate teacher pay, school funding and school grades under the state’s “A-F” rating system.
Pence said Monday that he was “deeply troubled” that the time needed to administer the revamped test would more than double for all grades, from about five hours to up to 12 hours, 30 minutes for third-graders. He said that created a hardship for students, their families and teachers.
Pence said Tuesday that Roeber was finalizing requests for data from the Department of Education. The governor also notified schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz that test vendor CTB/McGraw-Hill has agreed to work with Roeber and Ritz’s department to shorten this year’s assessment.
–Associated Press
