ISTEP scores revealed to educators

Almost a year after the test was administered, Indiana educators finally received ISTEP scores Friday.

Also Friday, the Indiana State Superintendent, Glenda Ritz, visited South Bend Community Schools.

“I think everybody knew that was going to happen. It’s a brand new assessment,” Ritz said.

Ritz is one of the test’s biggest critics.

“I’ve been very vocal about how I want to see less assessments,” Ritz said.

Dr. Carole Schmidt, superintendent of South Bend Community Schools says right now the schools just have a roster of all students and their scores.

“Right now it’s not in a position where we can manipulate them and disaggregate them and put them in grade level by grade level by grade level,” Schmidt said.

Parents will get their children’s scores from 2014, now almost a year old, on Monday.

 “The parents will have a week to request a rescore,” Schmidt said.

The score delays are another growing pain of the new, more rigorous version of the ISTEP, which teachers had little to no time to prep for.

“It’s really been a difficult process this time around,” Schmidt said.

Educators from the state to local level hope last year’s testing woes will serve as a learning experience.

“We remain optimistic that at some point in time, this particular assessment will provide us with some good data,” Schmidt said.

Ritz promises she’ll do everything she can to help make that happen.

“We anticipate it running smoothly, and scores being received by parents in the very beginning of the summer,” Ritz said.