QUOTE
ISTEP Moved To Spring Semester
Testing changes the time of year starting during the 2008-09 school calendar, and most like the new plan.
Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch
MICHIGAN CITY - ISTEP testing will move from the fall to the spring in the 2008-09 school year, where many teachers believe it belongs, according to a Friday announcement.
Spring results likely will not be available until August.
In the next year, 2009-10, the writing portion of the test will be given in March.
June Jankowski, the governor's press secretary, said officials at the Department of Education expect about 20 percent of Indiana students in that second year will be taking the tests online.
"We expect that number to increase every year," she said.
Testing online, however, depends on schools having proper technology.
The Graduation Qualifying Exam will turn into end-of-course exams in Algebra I, Biology I and 10th-grade English.
Students will take the tests at the time they finish the course, Jan Radford said. She is director of curriculum and instruction for the Michigan City Area Schools.
If a student completes algebra in eighth grade, the student will take the algebra test at the end of eighth grade. The student who doesn't
complete algebra until ninth grade would take the test at the end of that year.
As it now stands, sophomores take the GQE possibly two years after they have completed algebra.
In other states where he worked, said John Albert, principal of Marquette Catholic High School, state exams were given in the spring.
"This will be new to everyone and we will have to wait to see how it works," he said.
As for spring ISTEP testing, Radford said she is "cautiously optimistic."
Currently, many MCAS students don't get into their schools until after the school year has started.
"It's not that unusual to have a couple students show up for their first day on the first day of (fall) ISTEP testing," Radford said.
Spring testing also will minimize the impact of summer learning loss.
St. Stanislaus School Principal Susan Bryant said, like Radford, she is concerned about that learning loss.
"And in general and in theory, for children to know they will have an assessment on what they just learned gives them a sense of responsibility," she said.
Before they get to the promised land of spring teaching, however, school children and officials will be faced with both fall and spring ISTEP testing next school year.
"I am not looking forward to that," Radford said.
Contact Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.
Testing changes the time of year starting during the 2008-09 school calendar, and most like the new plan.
Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch
MICHIGAN CITY - ISTEP testing will move from the fall to the spring in the 2008-09 school year, where many teachers believe it belongs, according to a Friday announcement.
Spring results likely will not be available until August.
In the next year, 2009-10, the writing portion of the test will be given in March.
June Jankowski, the governor's press secretary, said officials at the Department of Education expect about 20 percent of Indiana students in that second year will be taking the tests online.
"We expect that number to increase every year," she said.
Testing online, however, depends on schools having proper technology.
The Graduation Qualifying Exam will turn into end-of-course exams in Algebra I, Biology I and 10th-grade English.
Students will take the tests at the time they finish the course, Jan Radford said. She is director of curriculum and instruction for the Michigan City Area Schools.
If a student completes algebra in eighth grade, the student will take the algebra test at the end of eighth grade. The student who doesn't
complete algebra until ninth grade would take the test at the end of that year.
As it now stands, sophomores take the GQE possibly two years after they have completed algebra.
In other states where he worked, said John Albert, principal of Marquette Catholic High School, state exams were given in the spring.
"This will be new to everyone and we will have to wait to see how it works," he said.
As for spring ISTEP testing, Radford said she is "cautiously optimistic."
Currently, many MCAS students don't get into their schools until after the school year has started.
"It's not that unusual to have a couple students show up for their first day on the first day of (fall) ISTEP testing," Radford said.
Spring testing also will minimize the impact of summer learning loss.
St. Stanislaus School Principal Susan Bryant said, like Radford, she is concerned about that learning loss.
"And in general and in theory, for children to know they will have an assessment on what they just learned gives them a sense of responsibility," she said.
Before they get to the promised land of spring teaching, however, school children and officials will be faced with both fall and spring ISTEP testing next school year.
"I am not looking forward to that," Radford said.
Contact Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.