Trying to fight off a long rant here

Posted on by Luther M. Siler

middle-finger-poster-flag-6185-pYou’ve read what I have to say about Rigor and High Standards, yes?  If not, start here.

The State of Indiana, in their infinite wisdom, has had the ISTEP test redone for this year.  And they have let us know that this one will involve High Standards!  And Rigor!  Lots of Rigor!  You can sprinkle it on stuff, like cinnamon sugar.

We take three practice tests over the course of the year so that we can get some idea of who might pass the ISTEP, because there are no other ways to figure that out other than testing.

The results of the second test are (mostly) in, and I’ve been looking at them all week.

Currently perhaps a dozen students in my building are expected to pass the ISTEP.  In the building.

That is not a typo or an exaggeration.  Historically we’ve been passing, oh, 70% of our kids or so, give or take a couple standard deviations.

But, hey, what do you want us to do?  Make excuses?

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Luther M. Siler

Teacher, writer of words, and local curmudgeon. Enthusiastically profane. Occasionally hostile.

4 thoughts on “Trying to fight off a long rant here”

  1. Sounds like you have the same situation as we do in the UK, successive education ministers calling for ‘more rigorous exam systems’ however much teaching unions tell them they’re moving the goal posts too much and too often. And I’m only an innocent bystander, how the teachers or the students get on with it all goodness knows!

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  2. Well, if only a dozen pass your school must be bad so we’ll cut funding – funding only goes to schools that succeed, you know? And with our budget? Sorry, I know it isn’t funny, but that’s the direction the whole country seems to be heading, which makes it even less funny and much scarier.

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  3. The problem cannot possibly be with the test itself — it HAS to be because all the teachers are suddenly not teaching as well as they were last year and the year before and the year before that… (end sarcasm)

    The state I was trained to be a teacher in went through a period a couple of decades ago where they seemed to think that change for the sake of change equaled progress and improvement. (For all I know, they may STILL do things that way. After I had to stop teaching because of my disability, I stopped paying as much attention.) It caused a big mess in which no one — students, teachers, parents, or school administrators — knew what was going on from one month to the next.

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  4. This test is going to be devastating for those students who have passed the ISTEP year after year and suddenly this year they fail. I feel bad for the kids 😦

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