Sunday, February 15, 2015

Senate Education Committee Approves Bill To Exempt Some Private Schools From ISTEP

Amidst all the ruckus this past week at the State House over the length of the revamped ISTEP standardized exams the Senate Education Committee passed legislation by a 7-3 vote along part lines to exempt some schools from ISTEP. Specifically, only private schools which receive public funding through the CHOICE Scholarship program would be exempt under SB 470 sponsored by Sen. Scott Schneider (R-Indianapolis). Instead of ISTEP, these schools would be permitted to use a locally adopted assessment program instead. Well, doesn't that beat all? Students at some of these schools haven't fared so well under the standardized testing program relative to their public school counterparts so let's allow them to take a different form of testing so their performance can't be compared to public schools.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exemption for the underperforming. Isn't that grand?

Anonymous said...

When test results aren't producing the desired outcome and you can't get away with fudging school performance grades outright, time to change the test! and better yet, make sure it's a different test so there's no way to compare results to your peers in the future!

Anonymous said...

I'm confused.....I thought the whole purpose of standardized test was to set a standard to which everyone would be measured.

Sound's like the 1897 Indiana General Assembly Bill Redefining Pi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill

LamLawIndy said...

Hey, if the private schools adopt the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, that'd be a HUGE improvement over ISTEP.

Josh said...

If some of the istep criteria contain questions such as the following;
write a sentance with the word "hotel" in it.
And the answer expected is along the lines of;
I give Shaniqua crabs, an tha ho tell everbody!
I can see why the private schools wouldn't come close to passing istep. Don't most private schools far outstrip public education in every positive category?

Anonymous said...

"I give Shaniqua crabs, an tha ho tell everbody!"

Wow. You just admitted that private schools purpose is to bring back segregation.

No, the majority of the sacred charter schools are actually failing:

76 Indiana Charter Schools:

Grade A - 16 Schools
B - 8 Schools
C - 4 Schools
D - 16 Schools
F - 17 Schools

(15 Schools were not rated as new startups or other unique criteria)

37 Marion County Charter Schools

Grade A - 5 Schools
B - 5 Schools
C - 3 Schools
D - 8 Schools
F - 8 Schools

(8 Schools were not rated as new startups or other unique criteria)

Failing Marion County Charters Include:

Fall Creek Academy

Andrew J. Brown Academy (Mayor Sponsored School)
Andrew Academy (Mayor Sponsored School Closing 2015)
Padua Academy (Mayor Sponsored School Closing 2015)
Imagine Indiana Life Science West Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter Excel Center for Adult Learners Damar Charter Academy


We sure do have some smart ones in Indiana.

Josh said...

"Wow. You just admitted that private schools purpose is to bring back segregation."

By your reactionary race card play I'm betting you think placing children into envionments where there are daily gang wars, assaults on teachers by students, rapes, thefts, assaults on other students, etc failure created by liberal nea policies is a good thing and if you use vouchers or other means to have your child enrolled in a private school constitutes segregation, I think you're mistaking common sense for racism.

But if everything is about race for you... have fun!