Indiana needs to improve communication between its education leaders, hire more staff and take other steps to prevent a repeat of the “thorny issues” surrounding the length of this year’s ISTEP+ exam, two consultants hired by the state say.
Indiana students might be off the hook from a proposal asking they pass a civics test to graduate from high school after a bill to require it was defeated in the state Senate on Tuesday.
Indiana school administrators say they welcome efforts to shorten the standardized test that 450,000 students soon will begin taking, but they say the exam will still take too long.
State schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz, who has been at loggerheads with Gov. Mike Pence for most of his first term, isn’t ruling it out.
Indiana schools are receiving official word about the steps being taken to shorten the state's standardized tests.
The move most likely would result in Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, a Democrat, being removed from the position.
Organizers of the rally are targeting bills moving through the Statehouse that would shift some authority from state schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz.
Indiana’s schools superintendent says a plan is in the works to cut about three hours from the maximum time that students will take the state’s standardized tests.
Indiana legislative leaders said they’re prepared to ram through legislation to make the state’s ISTEP test shorter, but they won’t consider Superintendent Glenda Ritz’s proposal to pause the school grading system for one year.
The State Board of Education will consider a proposal to suspend accountability grades and scrap portions of the ISTEP+ exam as it grapples with concerns about increased testing time for students.
The legislation would overturn the current law in which the state's elected superintendent of public instruction – now Democrat Glenda Ritz – automatically chairs the board.
Department of Education data show the total time for administering the ISTEP+ test will more than double for all grades, topping out at 12 hours, 30 minutes for third-graders.
Majority Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing forward with bills to revamp the Indiana Board of Education and strip power from the state superintendent even as Democrats complain the GOP is only playing politics.
Tensions continued to flare Monday as the Senate Rules Committee debated and then passed legislation to alter the composition of the Indiana State Board of Education and demote the superintendent as its chair.
Glenda Ritz's supporters protest that Republicans are disenfranchising a state electorate that gave Ritz 57,000 more votes than GOP Gov. Mike Pence received in the same election.
The elected state superintendent of public instruction would lose authority over several areas of education policy under Republican-backed proposals approved Thursday by an Indiana House committee.
An Indiana House committee has advanced a Republican-led proposal for shifting authority over education policy away from the elected state superintendent of public instruction.
House Bill 1638 would give significant new powers to the State Board of Education to intervene in schools earning a D or F grade for at least four straight years—even creating new schools within a school district.
A wide-ranging bill discussed Tuesday would give the Indiana State Board of Education authority over testing, standards, student data, state takeovers and teacher evaluation.
Indiana Department of Education officials presented their two-year budget proposal to the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday. It includes large increases to the Non-English Speakers Fund, textbook relief funding, and tuition support.
