CHANNEL 44 NEWS: Southwest Indiana Education Officials Unite Against ISTEP

Local school districts have been dealing with the controversial ISTEP test for years now.

Officials are asking parents, students, and community members to communicate with members of the Indiana assessment committee about finding a replacement test.

“There are huge problems. Not just problems that have been created but problems that have been ongoing now for the past six years that have really created an unstable environment for education in Indiana” Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Superintendent Dr. David Smith said.

A panel was created to find an alternative to ISTEP during the 2016 legislative session. After seven panel meetings Smith says Indiana is no closer to finding a replacement test.

“What we are trying to do here today is just to bring a voice to the students, our families, and our teachers who frankly have been left out of this process. Every time standards and assessments change it strips teachers of the necessary resources to do their job” Smith said.

Indiana gubernatorial candidate and Lt. Governor Eric Holcomb says delays in ISTEP results are inexcusable.

“ISTEP is going by the wayside and it can’t happen soon enough in my mind their needs to be a methodical approach to replacing it but we need a test here in Indiana that would receive results quicker that are fair, accurate, and timely” Holcomb said.

Now officials from close to 25 area school districts are calling community members to action.

“Indiana professional educators implore students parents and community partners to immediately communicate to the members of the Indiana assessment committee to recommend an assessment system that’s appropriate in use for both student progress tracking and accountability” Dr. Tracy Lorey with Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools said.

Officials say they want the committee to take politics and competition out of the process of finding a replacement exam.

The Republican candidate for Indiana Governor and his running mate started Wednesday morning at Youth First on Southeast Third Street. Then the pair also paid a visit to the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Holcomb says speaking with chamber officials gave him a unique perspective from this part of the state. He says, “Not just Evansville, but the southwestern quadrant of the state and I’ve been proud to have been associated with a lot of the reforms that have enable this part of the state to really forge forward and create their own destiny and contribute to the life of our state.”

At 1:30 p.m. Holcomb and his running mate will tour the Evansville Medical School and hotel project site with Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. And then at 4:30 p.m. Crouch will be a guest at the Vanderburgh County Federation of Republican Women Soup Dinner and Candidates Night.