Please feel free to email elected representatives in the Indiana legislature if you agree that testing has become the monster that ate education. Does it make sense for children in third and fourth grade to sit for 19-20 hours of testing?
Required testing time:
SAT-3 hours 45 minutes
ACT-3 hours 30 minutes
Indiana BAR-13 hours
ISTEP- 3rd grade:18 hours
4th grade:20 hours 10 minutes
5th grade:19 hours 42 minutes
6th grade:19 hours 55 minutes
To: Sue Errington , Rhonda Rhoades , Jeff Thompson , Jim Lucas , Lloyd Arnold , Vernon Smith , Robert Behning , Edward Clere , Woody Burton , Tony Cook , Dale Devon
, William Fine , Justin Moed , Terri Austin , Senator Earline Rogers , Mrvan , Senator Jean Leising , Senator Carlin Yoder , Chip Perfect , Dennis Kruse , Senator Scott Schneider , Senator Pete Miller , Senator Jeff Ratz , Senator Mark Stoops , Amanda Jim Banks , Eric Bassler , Greg Walker , goodinterry@netscape.net, Senator Tomes , Senator Alting , Brent Waltz , Senator Brent Steele , Eric Koch , Sean Eberhart , “judmcmillin@yahoo.com” , Randy Truitt , Gregory Porter , Tom Dermody , Governor’s Office , Head , Kenley , Speaker Brian Bosma , Dave Frizzel
Subject: This year’s ISTEP
Required testing time:
SAT-3 hours 45 minutes
ACT-3 hours 30 minutes
Indiana BAR-13 hours
ISTEP- 3rd grade:18 hours
4th grade:20 hours 10 minutes
5th grade:19 hours 42 minutes
6th grade:19 hours 55 minutes
In what universe does this seem even remotely to be a good idea?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please add 1x to 1.5x extended time per IEPs of some (many) students with disabilities. Their teachers are involved in this extended testing time and ALL INSTRUCTION STOPS. Loss of Instructional Time is never tallied and explored by the Deformers as a factor in test results. They measure every da** recorded utterance, scribble, dot, speck, ect…but, never the LOST INSTRUCTIONAL TIME. We must collect that data! We know testing time. Need test prep & SWD extended time, too.
Reblogged this on Dolphin and commented:
Legislators have no business deciding what tests are appropriate to determine progress or areas of weakness of a child. Educators are trained for that and are much, much more in tune with children’s needs.
I think it’s time to test the legislators to see if they are qualified to run public education AND if they are competent to govern the citizens of Indiana.
Let’s turn America’s children into lab rats! We need to hear from child psychologists about what this does to various types of children, by socioeconomic levels to special needs, IEP students, ELLs, emotionally fragile etc.
A pediatrician spoke out against high-stakes testing at the Indiana State Board of Ed meeting. She the amount of anxiety in students has skyrocketed and she is obligated to report this testing as child abuse.
In talking with newly minted graduates going to college, the message is clear. They hate school and want NOTHING to do with a career in education. That is what it is done.
IMPORTANT!!!! I sent 2 e mails to them previous to this but was informed by a friend that at least Bill Fine’s office, our area, said they had received NO phone calls.
The 800 number is closed until Monday – when they start voting.
HOWEVER I do have another number to which I was able, this Saturday AM to leave a message.
317 234 9380.
It is imperative that they hear from us before they start voting on Monday!!!!
It MAY be that a phone message may carry more weight than an e mail. I do not know BUT it might not hurt to do both.
As stated: this is HORRENDOUS!!!!! After Monday it MAY be too late to do anything, idiocy will have prevailed.
PLEASE lend your voice.
if I took such tests in 3rd grade, knowing myself, I surely would have failed.
good lord… there was a reason why child labor laws were passed – how is this any different?
Totally agree. Also, why does everyone leave out the 7-8 grades. We too are tripling our testing times from last year. 12 and 13 year olds should not be subjected to this madness either. You add hormonal changes, negative peer pressure, and the inability to focus for long periods of time (thanks to video games, et al.) and you have a unique set of stumbling blocks that middle schoolers face. I think our group of kids are often over looked in this situation.
“The Testiverse”
The Testiverse
Where test is law
Is quite perverse
As Einstein saw
CC “SAGE” testing in Utah, from third grade to twelfth grade: ELA: Interim tests (required by my district): 3 hours; ELA writing (we are in the midst of that now): 4-5 hours; final test: 3-4 hours. Math: interim, 2 hours; final, 2-3 hours. Science: 2 hours interim, 2 hours final. Total testing for the year, not counting any district-mandated stuff (of which there is a lot): 18-22 hours. Since the ELA writing test has no time limit, it takes some students 6 or 7 hours to finish the two essays, which require students to read two or three articles on the subject before actually writing the essay.
It’s disgusting that this is happening ANYWHERE.
In response to Retired Teacher’s thoughtful post I’ve attempted to share personal thoughts as an educator and as a school psychologist. I appreciate opportunities to advocate for our students (an families) experiencing mental health challenges and other high needs areas, so I’ve taken this answer a bit further than I originally intended. Although I only write of public urban schools, I am not trying to discount other schools. Indeed, all schools are facing significant challenge in the face of what some I and some others feel is ridiculousness.
Our urban schools often have a very challenging demographic. We’ve got babies being raised in older homes with lead based paint, we have women who have done the best they can during pregnancy to have a healthy baby, yet the stress level alone from living in poverty causes neurological structural change for some newborns. We have generations of families who feel beaten down by the system, have lost hope, and want to just have basic needs filled. Many are considered homeless as they struggle just to stay alive. They survive by following the rules of their streets. Some of our children live where it’s not uncommon to hear gunshots (even in daylight). These children can’t move around or go to the playground down the street or play past 6:00pm or after dark. Some kiddos have guaranteed meals only because they go to school (yet some politicians say it’s people’s choice if they live in poverty and choose to work for minimum wage, so minimum wage should not be raised).
All that being said, how can we expect our children with all of these things and more going against them, especially our babies with disabilities, to take these tests with expectations of scores comparing to suburban schools where it’s more likely there may be parents who can afford to have children in sports, have outside tutoring, or even have funds for medical costs over what insurances pay. If you’re worried about your next meal or worried if you’ll get to sleep in a bed that night, how well are you going to perform on a test made, from a student’s perspective, to prove what you don’t know and so teachers can get raises and schools can stay open?
Teachers and their families sacrifice much more time and heart, even up to double the amount of time they’re contracted to work, than outsiders realize. These teachers do believe in our students; they do want what is best for the student’s success. They have followed predetermined unforgiving curriculum as ordered by corporate individuals looking subjectively at numbers on a report from a 2 hour visit they call an audit. Everyone in this picture has been set up to fail. Everyone of those involved will be derided and possibly lose their job or opportunity of a raise or bonus the next year because of upper level business managers perceiving fault with those in the trenches.
As to the amount of time to take these tests, how can we expect results to show anything but lower scores, from the kiddo with executive function problems who can’t seem to focus,stay in his or her seat, to our wise children on the spectrum who finds testing useless when we are now asking them to test for multiple days. The stress is easily visible weeks before the testing even starts. The premise of the new ISTEP is sound if we want our children to become leaders. Following the old tests just confirms answers can be regurgitated on demand. The new tests instead, require critical thinking skills, ability to devise a constructive response, and the skill to share the result. With conceptual understanding, this allows the schools and parents to scaffold on a solid foundation of knowledge instead of a house of cards built on chance.
On personal opinion, it seems the drastic demands of times to take the tests and expectations of high results on the new ISTEPs are more from political stances beyond the state superintendent’s office. If this is the case, I expect schools and families will experience turmoil until the tests are changed and then education will return to its tried an unrealistic ways. A more reasonable proposal may be drastically shorten it and to use this new ISTEP as a tool to adjust curriculum for what needs to be learned (isn’t this the original premise), than to continue to use it as a measure of competence. And perhaps, just perhaps, school systems should start demanding what materials we need for teaching instead of allowing corporate systems drive us further into educational depression based on a business model’s perspective. Lastly, I feel we need to ask, how can we teach our children when we can’t learn ourselves?
It’s called “creating failure.”
Friends,
There are too many teachers here rated as effective or highly effective here. What you are witnessing is a coup d’etet in Indiana. Plain and simple!
Sadly, calling or e-mailing legislators will do no good. Their owners hold too much power.
As I have said here before, we are probably going to loose a minimum of a generation of students here.
Citizens United has changed the game drastically.
are you mad! All that testing is proving what?!
The validity of the golden rule – He who has the gold, rules.
We cannot stop it — GOP Supermarjority wants to control schools — well, the funding of schools and privatize education based on “school failure.” Are you starting to see the pattern here? Only 37% of Hoosiers that could vote did vote in 2014. Young people? It was only 12%. Bloody red Indiana can do as it wants, and it wants to destroy public education. Property taxes are rising as the taxpayer is now supporting traditional schools and all its infrastructure, privately run public schools that take the money from traditional schools and charge high building rents and utilities, and then vouchers to all kinds of private schools — with little oversight. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and the educated population — they are leaving the state in higher numbers. Poverty is around 16% but really is about 28% when considering the working poor; food stamps have doubled since 2009, and homeless persons have greatly increased in number. And, our governor thinks he can be President. Sounds like a real successful state, right?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see many parents opt-out ISTEP, should Indiana GOP cronies get HB1609 approved to strip Glenda Ritz of power in the state board.