INDIANA TEACHERS UNION LOBBIES FOR 86% FAILURE RATE ON ISTEP TEST \doc\web\97\08\istep.txt From: Tim_Zukas@pvn.com To: education-consumers@tricon.net Date sent: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 08:16:04 -0500 Subject: Re: Not Colorado too?!! - See Indiana Indiana has the problem of measuring climbers against other climbers, rather than against the mountain. Here is what the ISTA (Indiana Teacher's Union) says about ISTEP "ISTA Hotline Reports Teachers lobbied hard to raise the standards. As a result, under the State's revised testing program, ISTEP Plus, teachers have raised the bar. Indiana's tests are no longer "minimum skills" tests." We don't know what will happen with this year's test, but we know what happened last year. A group of master teachers are supposed to set the standards. Based on their best judgment the failure rate on the math ISTEP would have been 66% for sixth grade, 86% for eighth, and 52% for tenth. Buckling to political pressure, they went back and lowered their expectations so that the failure rates would be 58% for sixth, 39% for eighth, and 36% for tenth. The Standards Task Force then lowered the sixth grade mark again so that the failure rate came down to 36%. The most significant is eighth. The NAEP numbers say 20% of Indiana students are proficient. The master teachers set the number at 14%. The result reported to the public was 61%. ISTEP is not a "minimum skills" test. It is a minimum skills test that has been dumbed down two notches. EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE