The Wawascene was created by Dr. Mark Stock, former Superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corporation. Due to its local popularity, Dr. Stock has left the blog site to future Wawasee administrators.

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Thursday, February 02, 2006

Daniels and Reed spar over ISTEP move

The Journal Gazette said today that Daniels has questioned Reed's estimates on moving ISTEP to the Spring.

Story here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am I missing something here, or can't the same test be given? I don't understand what the $45 million is all about. Maybe they should poll teachers and see what the experts think.

Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Edington said...

I am sure others are wondering the same thing.

Currently Fall 6th grade ISTEP tests are used to assess 5th grade essential skills - or skills taught in 5th grade that are essential for 6th grade success.

I am sure many test items could be used again although I am sure the test company would prefer you hire them to make new ones.

By moving tests around to different parts of the year the test makers have to "re-norm" the tests which means set new passing scores based on the changes.

In addition they are looking at on-line testing which will require a lot of work not to mention major upgrades in technology around the state.

Another expense is the cost of scoring the writing portions. Those are handscored and new writing prompts are created each year because the state releases them back to the schools and the students.

Your last statement is the truest and saddest one. Schools and school children have become political pawns for those in power. If they had asked teachers what they think we would not have NCLB in it's current form.