“The EVSC fully supports Governor Eric Holcomb and State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick’s request to exercise a hold harmless provision in response to the extreme drop in state test scores for the initial year of Indiana’s ILEARN assessment. And, while this may offer a short-term remedy, the EVSC is concerned public confidence will continue to erode in the state’s ability to create an accountability system that fairly assesses the performance of our Indiana schools. This is the second time in five years that Indiana has used the “hold-harmless” provision, and it is no secret that Indiana schools are still dealing with the impact of changing academic standards while adjusting to the third testing vendor in these same five years. Further frustration developed this past summer for parents as they had an extremely short timeline for submitting rescores.

Moving forward, we respectfully ask state legislators, the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana State Board of Education to do a thorough study of a seemingly flawed accountability system that fails to include multiple measures to accurately show the academic progress of Hoosier students. We also strongly believe a comparative analysis should be undertaken to conduct an accurate comparison between our students and those around the nation to see where Indiana students perform on national assessments. We believe this will show Indiana students perform at a higher level than their counterparts around the nation.

It is not surprising that parents, community members, and educators are losing confidence and becoming increasingly frustrated because our state is having to exercise the hold harmless provision for the second time in the past five years due to testing concerns. It is becoming abundantly clear that our reliance on high stakes testing alone is resulting in a flawed accountability system that is failing our most important commodity, the students of our state.”