While spring 2011 ISTEP+ results were up for the state of Indiana compared to 2010, most area school corporations saw a drop in their scores.
Rochester and Manchester school corporations were the only two area school corporations that saw improvements in all of their scores in 2011 compared to 2010.
According to a press release from the Indiana Department of Education, overall in Indana in 2011, 70.2 percent of students passed both the English/language arts and mathematics portions of the exam. In individual subjects, the assessment resulted in statewide pass rates of 78 percent in English/language arts, 79 percent in mathematics, 69 percent in science and 67 percent in social studies.
Upon taking office, Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett set a goal for 90 percent of Indiana students passing both the mathematics and English/language arts portion of the ISTEP+. In 2011, 75 schools hit the 90 percent benchmark, up from 51 schools in 2010.
The eight area public school corporations include Manchester, Rochester, Tippecanoe, Triton, Wa-Nee, Warsaw, Wawasee and Whitko.
For Manchester, the percentage of students passing both math and English/language arts (ELA) in 2011 was 73.3 percent, compared to 72 percent in 2010.
Rochester had 76.8 percent pass both math and ELA in 2011, compared to 73 percent in 2010.
Tippecanoe Valley’s percentage of students passing both categories in 2011 dropped to 62.3 percent, down from 67.9 in 2010, according to the IDOE website.
In 2011, 66.6 percent of Triton students passed both math and ELA, down from 69.1 percent in 2010.
Wa-Nee’s result increased from 75.5 percent of students passing both math and ELA in 2010 to 78.9 percent passing both in 2011.
Warsaw Community School Corp. saw its percentage of students passing both ELA and math drop from 70 percent in 2010 to 69.4 in 2011, according to the website.
In 2010, Wawasee students passing both math and ELA was 73.9 percent. That dropped in 2011 to 72.8 percent.
Whitko’s percentage of students passing both math and ELA also dropped to below 70 percent. In 2010, 70.3 percent of students passed both, dropping to 67.4 percent in 2011.
ISTEP+ is given each spring to students in third through eighth grade. Students first took the spring test in 2009, and this year’s test remains the same in terms of level of difficulty and content covered, according to the IDOE press release.
The goal of ISTEP+ is to measure how well students perform and comprehend the skills and content outlined in Indiana’s Academic Standards. Like last year’s test, the 2011 version of ISTEP+ included open-ended and multiple-choice questions in English/language arts and mathematics at each tested grade level as well as science for fourth and sixth grade and social studies for fifth and seventh grade.
The test was administered in two separate sessions. Students took the open-ended portion from Feb. 28 to March 9, and the multiple-choice section from April 25 through May 4.
All ISTEP+ information, including performance data for each school corporation and individual schools, is available online at www.doe.in.gov/istep
