The online testing window lasts until May 15, but with students expected to experience around six hours of testing, teachers and administrators hope technical delays don't result in more frustration for students.
Brandie Muha, East Porter County Schools' Director of Curriculum and Instruction, said technical disruptions raise a lot of questions.
"It raises concerns about the validity and the outcome," Muha said. "If it's freezing, then how are we accurately timing the test? Are we testing their use of technical skills or their knowledge?
"We don't want to put students through anymore undue stress than they already experience."
Schools have been encouraged by the state to submit disruption reports to the Indiana Department of Education though the practice stage, and reports were due by noon Wednesday. Schools were supposed to hear back from the state by the end of the day on Wednesday as to whether they would be granted the opportunity to administer the exam in paper form.
But the paper-and-pencil exam window started on Monday and only extends through May 8.
"You would think they would extend it if they grant that exemption," Muha said. "And they're not just allowing anyone to switch. They're very particular who gets to switch. But even if we were granted, we don't have the materials to do the paper-pencil test at this point."
Indiana Department of Education spokesman Daniel Altman said the state has received several reports of disruptions, but the number is pretty much in line with what they see each spring. Testing contractor CTB-McGraw Hill has had repeated issues with ISTEP, most notably in 2013 when nearly 78,000 students were kicked off their testing modules.
Altman said about 90 percent of schools opt for online testing, while 10 percent go the paper-and-pencil route.
Uproar from parents and educators caused Gov. Mike Pence and the Indiana General Assembly to take action in order to shorten the test — which had grown to 12 hours for some students. The Department of Education trimmed a few sections from Part 1 of the exam, which was given in January and February, but it hasn't made any attempts to shorten Part 2.
Munster Assistant Superintendent Phyllis Gilworth said the district has experienced a few issues, but "at this point we are a go with online testing."
"I feel terrified even saying it, but at the moment, it's calm," Gilworth said.
Munster did encounter some issues with Part 1 of the test and it was a server issue with CTB-McGraw Hill.
"You would have thought since they lost the state testing contract for next year that surely they aren't surprised by these issues," Gilworth said.
Kara Bonin, Merrillville Community Schools' Director of Elementary Education, said the number of problems increased as the practice testing has progressed this week.
"I talked to you too soon in regards to whether we were experiencing problems," Bonin said. "On Day 2 we had a lot more problems — students were experiencing long delays in bringing up a question, screen readers were starting to freeze, and students having to shut down and logon another computer, but it would say they were logged on elsewhere."
Muha said the problems are an indicator of a much larger problem in Indiana and across the United States.
"We're overtesting our kids, and we know what is developmentally appropriate," Muha said. "These tests are not going to give us information as a school that we don't already know in our ongoing interactions and assessments with kids. It's not giving us knowledge we can use to improve student learning. It's all about accountability — judging the schools and rating teachers."
This may be ISTEP's final year as the Indiana General Assembly considerings Senate Bill 566, which would let students take a national test next year and eliminate high school end-of-course exams and the third-grade I-READ test.
Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, — the bill's author — has said it would be cheaper for the state to choose an "off the shelf" test, like the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, rather than shelling out an estimated $70 million to create new tests for changing state standards.
©2015 the Post-Tribune (Merrillville, Ind.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
