Goals and Accountability Yield Strong Results
Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett this morning celebrated with administrators and educators from across the state as he announced another year of positive movement in test results. The 2011 Indiana Statewide Testing for Education Progress-Plus (ISTEP+) results show Indiana’s students made gains in every subject tested.
“Indiana’s talented educators and students worked together to deliver these encouraging results,” Bennett said. “I could not be more proud of the 963 schools that improved, and I look forward to sharing their success stories with school communities across the state.”
Overall, 70.2 percent of students passed both the English/Language Arts and Mathematics portions of the exam. In individual subjects, the assessment resulted in statewide pass rates of 78 percent in English/Language Arts, 79 percent in Mathematics, 69 percent in Science and 67 percent in Social Studies.
Upon taking office, Dr. Bennett set a goal for 90 percent of Indiana students passing both the Mathematics and English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP+. With this goal in mind, students and staff across the state have made large academic gains over the last few years.
“I am confident Indiana’s great teachers will continue to drive this upward trend in student performance,” Bennett said. “High expectations for all students and educators have yielded improved results, and now Indiana’s educators have the tools they need to build on this success in the years to come.”
This year at Deputy Elementary in Madison Consolidated School Corporation and Ferdinand Elementary in Southeast Dubois School Corporation, 100 percent of students passed the Math portion of the ISTEP+.
Murdock Elementary in Lafayette saw the highest increase overall, improving 30.9 percentage points to 84.7 percent passing both Mathematics and English/Language Arts. Eighty-five percent of Murdock’s students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
In Indianapolis, H.L. Harshman Middle School saw the state’s largest gains in grades 7 through 8, increasing 27.2 percentage points. More than 85 percent of Harshman students come from minority households.
Staff members from Deputy, Murdock and Harshman joined Dr. Bennett at today’s announcement. Administrators and teachers from each school said innovative instruction, great educators and a commitment to reaching all students led to their success.
“These results prove that all children are capable of succeeding with the aid of caring educators who are willing to accept nothing but the best from their students,” Bennett said.
In 2011, 75 schools hit the 90 percent benchmark, up from 51 schools in 2010. All ISTEP+ information, including performance data for each corporation and school, is available online at www.doe.in.gov/istep.
About the 2011 Spring ISTEP+
ISTEP+ is given each spring to approximately 500,000 students in grades 3 through 8. ISTEP+ offers a snapshot of student progress at a specific point in time, providing educators, students and parents information they can use to identify specific strengths and areas of need at each grade level. Students first took the spring test in 2009, and this year’s test remains the same in terms of level of difficulty and content covered.
The cut scores for the ISTEP+ were developed by more than 100 teachers from across the state following the first administration of the test in the spring of 2009; cut scores are available online at www.doe.in.gov/assessment/2011/index.html.
The goal of ISTEP+ is to measure how well students perform and comprehend the skills and content outlined in Indiana’s Academic Standards. Like last year’s test, the 2011 version of ISTEP+ included open-ended and multiple-choice questions in English/Language Arts and Mathematics at each tested grade level as well as Science for grades 4 and 6 and Social Studies for grades 5 and 7. The test was administered in two separate sessions; students took the open-ended portion from February 28, 2011 to March 9, 2011 and the multiple choice section April 25, 2011 thru May 4, 2011.
Supporting Students & Parents
ISTEP+ Parent Network: Three years ago, the IDOE established the ISTEP+ Parent Network, an online resource that offers parents secure access to their students’ ISTEP+ scores. Accessible on demand throughout the year at www.inparentnetwork.com, families can use the ISTEP+ Parent Network to review students’ latest assessment results quickly and easily and connect to useful educational resources. Parents should have received a letter containing secure ISTEP+ Parent Network login information from their student’s school.
Supporting Teachers & Schools
Indiana Growth Model: The Indiana Growth Model calculates student progress, or growth, on state assessments. The Growth Model allows an unprecedented level of public disclosure and understanding of information about individual student, school and district performance. The IDOE is committed to focusing educational reform and school improvement efforts around the Growth Model to raise student achievement for every student and close achievement gaps.
The Growth Model enables parents, teachers and administrators to understand how individual students are progressing from year to year. This year the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation requiring teachers to be evaluated based, in part, on student performance. Based on where each student begins, IDOE expects all students to achieve at least one grade level of growth in an academic year with the help and assistance of a quality educator. The Growth Model uses ISTEP+ scores to calculate these measurements in growth and to illustrate progress over time for students, schools and districts. It will also serve as a valuable tool for looking at teacher performance in the classroom. For more information on the Indiana Growth Model, go to https://learningconnection.doe.in.gov/ArticleViewer.aspx?art=8.