No ISTEP, Now What?

 
 

Officials with the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation are not sad to see the ISTEP test go by the wayside. State lawmakers voted to scrap the controversial exam at the end of 2017. Superintendent Dan Foster says that decision raises some questions, like why to even give the test next year.

Foster told the school board Monday night it’s unclear at this time what will replace ISTEP.

“There will be a committee put together, and we can only hope that this time they will actually have educators on that committee they listen to and value their input.”

Foster adds a lot of the problems with ISTEP could have been avoided had state policymakers been more open to suggestions.

“A great number of people said for a year and a half that it was going to be a disaster last year, and nobody did anything about it. Then at the end it was a train wreck, just like most people predicted. So hopefully they will listen to the educators this time and take some valued input.”

Computer malfunctions by a vendor raised questions about the integrity of the results. The State Board of Education agreed to hold districts harmless when A-F grades based on those scores were finally released in January.