Indiana State Testing: PTSC Weekly Update

porter-township-schools-logoIf you have a child in grades 3-8 or enrolled in Algebra 1 or English 10 - then you know that we have been hard at work tackling state testing!

As you may recall, last spring the state decided to opt our of the Common Core Standards in favor of creating our own version of Indiana Standards. This last-minute change left teachers across Indiana working feverishly to prepare for the fall of this year when the new standards had to be taught. Typically new standards are phased in over time to allow teachers to develop curriculum, scope and sequence documents, and also materials designed to cover a new set of standards. Our teachers worked hard to pull this off in just a short handful of months!

It is also typical to see a state adopt new standards and then roll out a new assessment system gradually as there is always a dip in testing scores when new standards are implemented. Many states either suspend accountability measures for a year or run two accountability systems side by side due to the research that shows this implementation dip. Indiana has not elected to go this route. So, this year the state also rolled out a new set of spring assessments to test the new set of standards that were unveiled just about a year ago. These new assessments had a very different level of rigor and item format--something you may have heard from your children as they came home from testing. Our teachers worked very hard to prepare students for this new level of rigor and the new format along with the new set of standards. We look forward to seeing our assessment results and hope that our hard work allows us to beat the implementation dip odds!

PTSC Standouts:
Congratulations to the following Boone Grove High School Students who were inducted into the Porter County Technology Honor Society: Andi Burczyk, Andrew Foster, Samuel Pauk, Joseph Rodriguez, and Jordan Vann. We are very proud of your hard work!

Congratulations to Allegra Shinabargar who won an Award of Excellence at the American Institute of Architecture contest in Indianapolis.

Email PTSC standouts to Dr. Schmidt at stacey.schmidt@ptsc.k12.in.us.