News release from the Indiana Department of Education:
Hoosier Students Set New Performance Records
State Recognizes Several Top Performing Allen County Schools
(July 10, 2012) – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett announced another year of record breaking scores for Hoosier students on the Indiana Statewide Testing for Education Progress Plus (ISTEP+) at a recognition ceremony today at the Statehouse. Educators from top performing schools across the state joined him in celebrating the third successive year of all-time highs on every portion of the test.
“Hoosiers from all walks of life should greet this news with a standing ovation,” Dr. Bennett said. “More students than ever are getting a world class education in our schools. Thanks to the efforts of Indiana’s great teachers, we’re successfully educating a new generation of leaders and innovators who will build a more prosperous future for our state.”
Overall, 71 percent of Hoosier students passed both the English/Language Arts (E/LA) and Math portions of the test during the 2011-2012 school year, a 1 percent gain on the previous school year and an 8 percent gain since the 2008-2009 school year.
For the first time, more than 80 percent of students demonstrated proficiency on at least one subject tested by the exam. The percentage of students passing the Math portion of test reached 81 percent—a 2 percent increase over the previous school year and a 9 percent uptick since the 2008-2009 school year.
Students recorded a pass rate of 79 percent on the E/LA portion of the test, 71 percent on the Science section of the exam and 69 percent on the Social Studies segment of the assessment. The pass rates for all subject areas represent improvements over the previous school year and gains of at least eight percentage points since 2008-2009.
Several schools in Allen County performed exceptionally well on the most recent round of testing. Oak View Elementary School in Northwest Allen County Schools posted the highest scores in the county, with almost 94 percent of students passing the E/LA and Math portions of the exam.
John S. Irwin Elementary School of Fort Wayne Community Schools recorded the largest gains in the county, with a 16 percent jump in students passing both the E/LA and Math segments of the test. The school has a 62 percent free and reduced lunch population.
Other high fliers included Fred H. Croninger Elementary School in Fort Wayne Community Schools where nearly 97 percent of students passed the E/LA portion of the test and Covington Elementary School – also MSD Southwest Allen County, where more than 95 percent of students passed the Math segment of the exam.
“Several schools in Allen County should be proud of the impressive gains their students made this year,” Dr. Bennett said. “The hard work of Indiana’s teachers and school leaders is clearly paying off as our students continue to succeed in new and impressive ways.”
Please see the attached documents for more information on statewide totals, recent gains in passing trends, information on the schools attending today’s ceremony, and quotes from educators around the state. For school corporation, school and statewide disaggregated data (including a list of schools separated by county), please click HERE.
About the 2012 Spring ISTEP+
ISTEP+ is given each spring to approximately 500,000 students in grades 3 through 8. ISTEP+ offers a snapshot of student progress at a specific point in time, providing educators, students and parents information they can use to identify specific strengths and areas of need at each grade level. Students first took the spring test in 2009 (it was previously administered in the fall), and this year’s test remains the same in terms of level of difficulty and content covered.
The cut scores for the ISTEP+ were developed by more than 100 teachers from across the state following the first administration of the test in the spring of 2009. Please click HERE for information on cut scores.
The goal of ISTEP+ is to measure how well students perform and comprehend the skills and content outlined in Indiana’s Academic Standards. Like last year’s test, the 2011 version of ISTEP+ included open-ended and multiple-choice questions in E/LA and mathematics at each tested grade level as well as science for grades 4 and 6 and social studies for grades 5 and 7. The test was administered in two separate testing windows; students took the open-ended portion from March 5 to March 14, 2012 and the multiple choice section April 30, 2012, to May 9, 2012.
This year, more than 329,000 students (approximately 66 percent of test-takers) took all portions of the test online. The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has worked with school corporations and schools over the last few years to build online test-taking capacity. In the spring of 2010, just over 15,000 students took the test via computer.
Supporting Students & Parents
Three years ago, the IDOE established the ISTEP+ Parent Network, an online resource that offers parents secure access to their students’ ISTEP+ scores. Accessible on demand throughout the year at www.inparentnetwork.com, families can use the ISTEP+ Parent Network to review students’ latest assessment results quickly and easily and connect to useful educational resources. Parents should have received, from their students’ schools, a letter containing secure ISTEP+ Parent Network login information.
Supporting Teachers & Schools
The Indiana Growth Model calculates student progress, or growth, on state assessments. The Growth Model allows an unprecedented level of public disclosure and understanding of information about individual student, school and district performance. The IDOE is committed to focusing educational reform and school improvement efforts around the Growth Model to raise student achievement for every student and close achievement gaps.
The Growth Model enables parents, teachers and administrators to understand how individual students are progressing from year to year. In 2011, the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation requiring teachers to be evaluated based, in part, on student performance. IDOE expects all students to achieve at least one grade level of growth in an academic year with the help and assistance of a quality educator. The Growth Model uses ISTEP+ scores to calculate these measurements in growth and to illustrate progress over time for students, schools and districts. It will also serve as a valuable tool for looking at teacher performance in the classroom. For more information on the Indiana Growth Model, please click HERE.
Student growth information based on the 2012 ISTEP+ results will be available to view with the Growth Model this fall.
See also – <a href="https://www.aroundfortwayne.com/news/?p=33398" target="_FWCS posts ISTEP+ gains for third consecutive year
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