Parents, students, educators invited to share mandated testing concerns

Ann Ennis, Republican candidate for State Representative, invites parents, students and educators to share their stories of ISTEP 2015 on the eve of ISTEP 2016.  Recently the state Senate adopted a plan to start all over after the 2017 ISTEP:  yet another major change led by the same assessors who created ISTEP+.

The gathering is Saturday, February 27, from 7:30 until 9:30 am, Ennis will be at the Darmstadt Inn, 13130 Darmstadt Road, to record stories, statement or questions.

“We are seeing first hand and hearing frequently that the software and on-line testing process is not working any better this year than last,” Ennis said.  It is time to talk openly about it.

Persons coming by the Darmstadt Inn that morning will have opportunity to make a short statement on digital media about their standardized testing experiences.  Friends of Ann Ennis will assemble these into a short video to prompt others in the community to think of the ramifications of these expensive series of tests.   They also can get particular questions about education policy in 2016 answered.

“The broader community is generally unaware of the financial and human cost of these mandated tests.  Although parents and students are free to speak and need to speak up, schools discourage them from too much talk.  As well, we think the educators who come will be retirees, because current teachers and administration are not able to speak out,” Ennis said.

Ennis has witnessed state officials’ distrust of local educators and how this has played out in anti-local and closed lips laws and statements.  Local school administrators have no choice but to clamp-down on current staff talking about ISTEP concerns. For this reason, groups advocating against state mandated tests are discouraged from speaking to parents or in schools, she said.  “So the community is not hearing the full story.  ISTEP and other mandated tests are like a series of deep dark secrets.  ‘What is on the test?’ ‘How does the equipment work?’ and ‘How much time is this eating up in day-to-day classrooms?’.”

As a volunteer in a local school, Ennis found herself quite accidentally in a classroom during the February 4 state-wide equipment stress-test that taxpayers funded for Pearson, the new Indiana ISTEP vendor.  “There was a better than 25% equipment failure rate.”

Ennis is a lifetime resident of District 64 with 30 years’ experience in civic leadership, including serving as Executive Director of Keep Evansville Beautiful (Evansville), and executive fund development positions with Habitat of Evansville, Ruth’s House (substance abuse recovery) and the Public Education Foundation of Evansville. She has been an officer in her family’s coal and oil exploration contracting firm, and worked in finance and media marketing.