Parents and teachers have been complaining about Indiana’s state testing, called ISTEP. But now David Rutter chimes in to support them in a scathing column printed in the Chicago Tribune. The state tests are worthless, he says, and Indiana is a national joke because of handing control of education over to politicians.
Public education. Sorry. We apparently can’t do that in Indiana. It’s too hard. And it’s even worse. Not only might Hoosiers parents fret if their public schools are any good, even basic student competence can’t be tested because Indiana can’t figure out a useful academic test.
It’s all too hard.
The yearlong embarrassing battle over ISTEP is not merely recreational political fisticuffs. It cost the state $65 million to produce an off-the-cuff test that measures nothing verifiable. Public school teachers who put their 400,000 students through the 12-hour torture are not even sure what the test was supposed to measure….
If the test were accurate, the state’s entire student body went from marginally intelligent to totally dumb in one year.
Don’t worry, though. The state now acknowledges this test was pointless. It’s not even apparent what the point was supposed to be.
The idea that any one test can measure 400,000 unique, distinct young human minds seems preposterous on its face….
Indiana misplaced the point of public education. It’s about children.
When schools are transformed into partisan political war zones, predictable devolution always damages the higher good.
The Indiana Legislature has decided its function is to punish bad schools and bad teachers by taking money and resources away from the spendthrift offenders. Of course, holding resources hostage hardly ever makes a school better.
As occurred this week when 2015 ISTEP results were revealed tardily, the effect is a statewide battery of badly designed tests mandated by amateurs whose only knowledge of public education is the instinct to impose “accountability…..”
Here’s a short chronology on how we reached this particular disaster:
1: First, Gov. Mike Pence ditches the reviled Common Core standards and orders “Indiana-specific” standards that are remarkably similar. And do it now.
2: Then he does not give state educators enough lead-time to write the standards and pilot-study the resulting test. ISAT is not a pop quiz. The state has constructed a test that students must study for weeks to take.
3: Then he fails to realize until it’s too late that changing tests on the fly blows up the testing process and create a large, ugly ripple in every state classroom. It’s the sort of misjudgment that amateurs make.
4: Then, finally, he grasps his favorite political excuse by blaming Superintendent of Public Education Glenda Ritz for a botch that mostly is beyond her control but clearly within Pence’s realm. She warned him. He ignored her.
At its intellectual heart, Statehouse denizens just played a $65 million joke on Indiana taxpayers, parents, teachers and students.
It seems that Indiana’s political leaders want to destroy public education and drive students into charters and voucher schools. The testing mess may have been part of that plan, or I may be crediting them with more forethought and calculation than they can muster.
SICK. The young and therefore our future, will suffer in the end. Maybe this is the point of all the deforms. But wait! The oligarchy sends their children to school with other rich kids. Ah, the deforms are really about racism and classism to the max.
Children, like the elderly, the sick and afflicted of all kinds, are not unique manifestations of God or the Cosmos. Nor are they citizens with inalienable rights.
They are profit centers.
“ISTEP”
ISTEP in it
And foul my shoe
A mess is it
And worthless too
“…even basic student competence can’t be tested because Indiana can’t figure out a useful academic test.”
I know he meant that to be a snide slam against Pence et al, but really, that’s the crux of the matter. And not just Indiana. No state can “figure out a useful academic test”. Maybe we need to step back a bit and think about why that is. Maybe it’s because there is no such thing as a “useful academic test”, at least not on a statewide, standardized basis. Maybe we should define “student competence” before we try to test it. Maybe we’ll finally figure out that it’s not really something that can be tested. Or, at least, it’s not one, unitary, universal thing that can be tested on a statewide, standardized basis.
Why all the need for new metrics, new measures of “intelligence” (of which all are biased), new “predictors” for the outcome of “becoming a productive citizen”????
For many of the past generation the Iowa Basic or California Achievement Test (CAT) were used nation-wide as valid and reliable measure of what we deem valuable skills and knowledge. Even today, many private schools, or home-schools, still rely on these tests as good measures of their childs’ “preparedness/readiness”.
So, why are we reinventing the wheel, when they are already tried-tested-true instruments out there? Is it because many love to waste taxpayers’ money by inventing redundant instruments, that may not be either valid or reliable? Is it because those that get the contracts (ex.. Pearson) pressure constituents and lobbyist to convince states or districts that “new and better” tests need to be made?
We already have many great tests out there; great if they are used for the right purpose and goal, which is never punitive. So, the next time anybody claims they need a new test, they themselves need to be tested as to their mental sanity.
Rick,
“We already have many great tests out there; great if they are used for the right purpose and goal,. . .”
Define what a “great” test is. And then name one.
TIA,
Duane
Duane
The NCLB and Common Core (grades 3 to 8) tests have done all of us a great service. Fifteen years of test data now proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that TEST-BASED reform is an abject FAILURE. Forget about the more outrageous claims of improved critical thinking and college and career readiness. The test scores themselves have not budged and the so-called learning gap has widened. FAILURE is now the legacy of this misguided reform movement.
The ESSA has placed THE BS TESTS on life support but the parent driven Opt-Out movement will pull the plug this spring. Not a single promise of the Testocracy has been fulfilled. Not a single claim of the Testocracy has been realized. Nothing but FAILURE. FAILURE to deliver even one benefit. FAILURE at every level, in every state. And an extremely expensive FAIL – in terms of money, time, energy, and lost opportunities.
Still waiting for the day when every parent of every student FINALLY stands up and says, “Hell no! Not my kid! You want to test a kid for hours for nothing, test YOUR kid. But NOT mine!” Parents, OPT OUT!
As a native Hoosier and former teacher there I am utterly disgusted by the shenanigans of Pence, Daniels and their GOP co-conspirators. They are destroying publis education with their school vouches, denigration of teachers, etc ad nauseam. If the gods were going tp give the world an enema they would place the nozzle in the Indiana State House.
Just another EPIC TESTING FAIL.
Is anyone at all surprised?
And yet they beg for more. Just one more test please. Just one bigger, better, badder test is all we need. We promise. The next test will be the difference maker.
This addiction is destroying a generation of children and the shame of it is,
the damage is irreparable. The stolen opportunities will not be returned.
The test-centered approach to public schooling is dead. Time to bury it for good, despite the new ESSA. Hoosier parents must demand better from their politicians and edu-crats.
Hear, hear! And not just Hoosier parents, but all parents.
It’s no joke. We have to live with it.
The wonderful wizards of DC and Indianapolis first demand accountability to THEM [Most have never taught a day in their life nor studied child psychology so they teach children they are failures – the test results are in]
and now
Hurrah. THEY will not hold schools and teachers accountable for the horrific incompetence of the corporations who graded them AND to whom they spent thousands of dollars which could have gone to schools and children.
WOW!!! How VERY thoughtful of them!!!!!
Why do we keep electing idiots to positions of authority? Talk about not being career ready! We need to find some leadership with thinking skills.
You give the Governor too much credit by saying he planned to be inept in order to sabotage public education. I just think he, like so many of the others making decisions on the public sectors behalf, thinks he’s infallible and his decisions are perfectly reasonable. Then when they don’t work, due to his lack of foresight into the true issues, he blames everyone else for his own ignorance.
Stupidity at work. And too many in the public buy into this nonsense.
You’d think the governor’s former-IN-teacher-wife could have advised him better.
Get government out of the classroom and let teachers teach! The country took a turn when the government squashed teacher unions and began to create cookie cutter education as well as the horrendous high stakes testing that serves no purpose in assisting teachers in helping students. The only purpose of the test is punitive to target teachers and schools, however when the test is poor and flawed, this is an unfair measure. The tests become worthless. Students and teachers want and need authentic assessment that provide feedback on what is taught. If any standardized test is to be given (God forbid), go back to the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or similar nationally normed test so that all students are comparative as with an SAT. these state tests are worthless.
First I am a student in high school in Indiana, and I see that everybody wants to put their faith in the parents. What the fuck! Stop the parents need to help, but more inportantly the students need to start fighting this incompetent train we have been forced in. I know what is helpful to my betterment, and one thing is true for everyone ISTEP is pointless. I personally got a perfect in the social studies portion simply by memorizing it when I was in fifth grade, there were 1-5 changed questions, and the readings were all the same. I am no a sophomore in high school and we have chosen to get as many people as possible to turn it in blank. Also these rules are ridiculous, for all parents and students out there who don’t know, you aren’t aloud to leave your AL, and you can’t really bring any extra materials. Why are we doing this, it’s greed and stupidity at its finest. A test should not replace the ECA because of a choice made by politicians. My grade could very well suffer because of this test, and I’m guessing that others grades will drop as well. If anybody wants to know my schedule on Monday here it is:
7:35-2:35 school
2:45-5:30 after school band
6:00-8:30 scouts and chores
9:00- 6:30a.m. sleep
Now when can I get my homework done, because ISTEP stole my AL my grades will suffer. If any administration wants to tell a student how and when to sleep then be my guest. We are students in high school preparing for our future lives, furthering our education and obtaining skills that will make us independent adults. Unless every single student has aspirations to live in jail then they need to pull this stick out of their ass. We are told if and or when to go to the bathroom as 16 year old individuals, given a strict amount of time as well. We are not aloud to leave to get lunch. If we are late to a class we are usually punished. We are censored by teachers who don’t approve of what we say or ask at various times, you know a curse word slips and they send you to the hall way as punishment for talking, disrupting your education. Also their employment system is broken, I’ve personally been molested in third grade by a teacher who will remain nameless. In third grade I never brought it to the administration because other teachers called me a liar, and thought I wanted to leave school early. Indiana testing is broken, but this idea of success public schools are inclined to believe exist is broken as well all over the nation. The government needs to devote more money to education. We should have to deal with the consequences of our choices our high school brains are almost if not fully developed and they still treat us as ignorant kindergartners. Maybe this is why our education is so bad compared with the rest of the world. Our schools are forced to punish the students, the future because the politicians consistently treat us as numbers not individuals, I get how expensive we are but what’s the point excessively spending on the military for protection for tomorrow if, when tomorrow comes our country will have little sense of individuality or responsibility. I’ve done work to better myself and my community, but I feel betrayed by the ones that are running it.