Statewide ISTEP Scores Released
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
This was only the second year ISTEP was taken in the spring. Prior to 2009, students tested in the fall.
Results show 81 percent of public schools increased the percentage of students passing both the English/language arts and mathematics portions of the ISTEP+, according to an Indiana Department of Education press release. The assessment resulted in statewide pass rates of 74 percent in English/language arts, 76 percent in mathematics, 67 percent in science and 65 percent in social studies.
"Achieving increases of 4 to 6 percent across the board for students in a majority of Hoosier schools is a tremendous step forward, and I extend sincere congratulations to all of our high-performing and improving schools for their hard work and tenacity," said Bennett. "I am excited to see these gains across the state and am very optimistic that students will continue on this path to excellence. Our goal is that 90 percent of the state's students are passing both the math and English/language arts portions of the ISTEP+ by 2012, and I believe our teachers, parents and communities will help Indiana's students rise to the occasion."
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Superintendent Brett Boggs was pleased with Valley's ISTEP results.
The school district went from 68.53 percent of its students proficient in English/Language Arts in 2009 to 74.65 percent in 2010, according to Boggs. In math, 73.30 percent of Valley students were proficient in 2009 and improved to 75.56 percent in 2010. In both English/language arts and math, 61.32 percent of Valley's students were proficient in both English/Language Arts and math in 2009 while 66.57 percent were proficient in 2010.
Highlights, according to Boggs, include 81 percent of Valley students proficient in math at grades 3, 7 and 8 and 77 percent in grade 5. In English/language arts, 83 percent of Valley's third-grade students were proficient, 75 percent at grades 5 and 7 and 74 percent in grade 4.
Warsaw Community Schools Chief Accountability Officer Tom Kline said he was very pleased with the language arts scores overall. If you look at the scores of the nine Warsaw schools that take ISTEP and look at them as a whole, he said eight of the nine schools' scores went up in language arts.
"We believe when we have the tests rescored, they will go up. We think nine of the nine schools' scores will go up," Kline said.
Warsaw has initiated a new language arts program called Readers Workshop over the past few years. They have added reading coaches and that has been a huge benefit, Kline said.
As for math scores, Kline said five of the nine schools' scores went up. While somewhat pleased with the increase in math scores, Kline said they'd like to see more improvement in that area.
A new math initiative is being started at WCS called Math In Focus. Kline said it is hoped schools will increase their scores with the initiative and the match coaches that are being put in place.
WCS is in its second year of a two-year process of analyzing its science curriculum. For fall 2011, Kline said WCS will be looking at implementing a new science program.
The other area tested by ISTEP is social studies. Kline said WCS will be looking at scheduling science and social studies more consistently in its schools so that will help the scores more.
All ISTEP+ information, including performance data for each corporation and school, is available online at www.doe.in.gov/istep
Charts of how Warsaw, Wawasee, Whitko, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton and Manchester school corporations did on the ISTEP in 2009 and 2010 is provided on page 7A of today's Times-Union.
ISTEP+ is given each spring to approximately 500,000 students in third through eighth grade. ISTEP+ offers a snapshot of student progress at a specific point in time, providing educators, students and parents with 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 the test remains the same in terms of level of difficulty and content covered.
The goal of ISTEP+ is to measure how well students perform and comprehend the skills and content outlined in Indiana's Academic Standards. Like the 2009 test, the 2010 version of ISTEP+ included open-ended and multiple-choice questions in English/language arts and mathematics at each 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 March 1 through 10, and the multiple choice section April 26 through May 5.[[In-content Ad]]
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This was only the second year ISTEP was taken in the spring. Prior to 2009, students tested in the fall.
Results show 81 percent of public schools increased the percentage of students passing both the English/language arts and mathematics portions of the ISTEP+, according to an Indiana Department of Education press release. The assessment resulted in statewide pass rates of 74 percent in English/language arts, 76 percent in mathematics, 67 percent in science and 65 percent in social studies.
"Achieving increases of 4 to 6 percent across the board for students in a majority of Hoosier schools is a tremendous step forward, and I extend sincere congratulations to all of our high-performing and improving schools for their hard work and tenacity," said Bennett. "I am excited to see these gains across the state and am very optimistic that students will continue on this path to excellence. Our goal is that 90 percent of the state's students are passing both the math and English/language arts portions of the ISTEP+ by 2012, and I believe our teachers, parents and communities will help Indiana's students rise to the occasion."
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Superintendent Brett Boggs was pleased with Valley's ISTEP results.
The school district went from 68.53 percent of its students proficient in English/Language Arts in 2009 to 74.65 percent in 2010, according to Boggs. In math, 73.30 percent of Valley students were proficient in 2009 and improved to 75.56 percent in 2010. In both English/language arts and math, 61.32 percent of Valley's students were proficient in both English/Language Arts and math in 2009 while 66.57 percent were proficient in 2010.
Highlights, according to Boggs, include 81 percent of Valley students proficient in math at grades 3, 7 and 8 and 77 percent in grade 5. In English/language arts, 83 percent of Valley's third-grade students were proficient, 75 percent at grades 5 and 7 and 74 percent in grade 4.
Warsaw Community Schools Chief Accountability Officer Tom Kline said he was very pleased with the language arts scores overall. If you look at the scores of the nine Warsaw schools that take ISTEP and look at them as a whole, he said eight of the nine schools' scores went up in language arts.
"We believe when we have the tests rescored, they will go up. We think nine of the nine schools' scores will go up," Kline said.
Warsaw has initiated a new language arts program called Readers Workshop over the past few years. They have added reading coaches and that has been a huge benefit, Kline said.
As for math scores, Kline said five of the nine schools' scores went up. While somewhat pleased with the increase in math scores, Kline said they'd like to see more improvement in that area.
A new math initiative is being started at WCS called Math In Focus. Kline said it is hoped schools will increase their scores with the initiative and the match coaches that are being put in place.
WCS is in its second year of a two-year process of analyzing its science curriculum. For fall 2011, Kline said WCS will be looking at implementing a new science program.
The other area tested by ISTEP is social studies. Kline said WCS will be looking at scheduling science and social studies more consistently in its schools so that will help the scores more.
All ISTEP+ information, including performance data for each corporation and school, is available online at www.doe.in.gov/istep
Charts of how Warsaw, Wawasee, Whitko, Tippecanoe Valley, Triton and Manchester school corporations did on the ISTEP in 2009 and 2010 is provided on page 7A of today's Times-Union.
ISTEP+ is given each spring to approximately 500,000 students in third through eighth grade. ISTEP+ offers a snapshot of student progress at a specific point in time, providing educators, students and parents with 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 the test remains the same in terms of level of difficulty and content covered.
The goal of ISTEP+ is to measure how well students perform and comprehend the skills and content outlined in Indiana's Academic Standards. Like the 2009 test, the 2010 version of ISTEP+ included open-ended and multiple-choice questions in English/language arts and mathematics at each 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 March 1 through 10, and the multiple choice section April 26 through May 5.[[In-content Ad]]
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