AKRON – In her first visit to Akron Elementary School, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz Tuesday talked to students about her career, read a book and toured the school. She also answered a few quick questions from the media before heading off to visit a couple schools in Anderson. The second round of ISTEP testing started this week, but as of Tuesday morning Ritz said she hadn’t heard of any problems. “Actually, things are going very smoothly. ISTEP window opened yesterday, April 28. We monitor the technology very closely between CTB and the Department of Education. They have constant communication with the schools when they report any itty-bitty disruption, so, no, we feel very comfortable with the testing,” Ritz said. Oklahoma reported a problem with the testing through CTB/McGraw-Hill, but Ritz said it was not a big concern. “There were some issues in Oklahoma, but it was cleared up quickly in Oklahoma and has no effect with what’s happening here in Indiana,” she said. According to the Indianapolis Star April 23, “Last year, nearly 80,000 Indiana students faced interruptions during the test: Computer screens froze, and some students were locked out of the test. Others reported that the audio voice-over function for students needing language assistance also malfunctioned.” “CTB/McGraw-Hill administers ISTEP under a four-year, $95 million contract with the Department of Education,” the Star also reported. Another issue Ritz touched on was the Indiana standards. According to ABC News, the state adopted Common Core in 2010 with 44 other states. But after some opposition to the standards by tea party members, Indiana lawmakers paused implementation of Common Core while a state review took place. In March, Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation for Indiana to stop the national standards. A replacement set of standards was approved Monday. Ritz said, “We’ve adopted Indiana College and Career Ready Standards. The State Board of Education adopted those yesterday, so teachers, I think, will have a very smooth transition to those College and Career Ready standards. We’re going to head right to the topic of assessments.” With the 2013-14 school year soon coming to a close, Ritz was asked how she would sum up the school year for the DOE. “We’ve got a lot going on. Standards was one of our major initiatives, to be sure we had those approved in April so that teachers could actually have those in their hands in May and throughout the summer. So that’s our biggest initiative,” she answered. Another big initiative for the DOE this year has been The Hoosier Family of Readers, Ritz said. The Hoosier Family of Readers is an initiative to build a culture of readers in Indiana. A reading family can be any combination of caring adults and children, reading together at home, a neighborhood library or out of school at places like the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA or Scouts, according to the DOE website. “The Hoosier Family of Readers – and making sure we’ve got organizations statewide, we have partnered with over 260 partners statewide to be sure our children have access to books and groups that are helping them read. So we want to make sure we keep them reading during the summer, make sure that parents know that’s an important aspect to do,” Ritz said. “Probably what I would highlight would be our outreach program at the Department of Education where we’ve got outreach coordinators actually serving the schools at the school level. They serve nine different regions, and they live and work within the region in which they serve the schools,” she said. Akron Elementary Principal Chrissy Mills had invited Ritz to the school for a career day. Though Ritz couldn’t make it on that date, she visited Tuesday morning to talk to the student body about her career and how she got there. Ritz told the students she took an introduction to teaching class in high school. She worked her way through college, and earned her bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees. She became the state superintendent of public instruction by winning an election, she told students. Some of her responsibilities as the state superintendent, she said, were to oversee all the schools in the state, oversee big initiatives and events like ISTEP testing and to visit all the schools. She emphasized the importance of reading and how it’s important to any job a person does. She told the students one of her favorite books of all time was “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and then read them one of her current favorite books, “Art & Max” by David Wiesner. She concluded her visit to Akron with a tour of every classroom in the school.
