SYRACUSE — Indiana Department of Education released results of spring 2017 ISTEP+ Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 6. The controversial test, which may be administered for the last time in the spring of 2018, has often frustrated administrators, teachers and students throughout the state.

ISTEP+ assesses English and language arts and math for grades three to eight and 10, science in grades four, six and 10 and social studies in grades five and seven. According to IDOE, ISTEP+ will continue during the 2017-18 school year as the state works toward the transition to ILEARN in 2018-19.

“ILEARN assesses the same Indiana Academic Standards as ISTEP+, but leverages computer adaptive testing to better inform educators about students’ strengths and weaknesses. Recruitment of educators to contribute to the development of the ILEARN assessment begins in September,” IDOE said in a statement.

Locally, the Wawasee Community School Corporation showed decreases in English and language arts and math at grade levels except for increases in grade four math (8.5 percent), grade eight English and language arts (4.2 percent), grade eight math (4.1 percent), grade 10 English and language arts (9 percent) and grade 10 math (1.6 percent), said Joy Goshert, assistant superintendent. Milford School had 71.4 percent of its students pass English and language arts, while Syracuse Elementary had 64.1 percent pass English and language arts.

Those results mirrored the state results, she noted, which showed either decreases in percent passing from 2016 to 2017 or only minimal increases.

For spring 2017 testing, Wawasee students in all grades, with the exception of third-graders who took the first part with pencils, took the test online and experienced only minimal disruptions unlike some previous years where there were major glitches.

Goshert said administrators and staff are glad to see ILEARN will be computer adaptive in some form. Wawasee has used Northwest Evaluation Association assessments for several years, which are also computer adaptive. “Those assessments let teachers know where individual students’ skill levels are in relation to Indiana academic standards,” Goshert said. “If a student is below grade level, we know how far below grade level that student is along with the specific skills we need to teach to bring that student up to grade level. If a student is above grade level, we know the specific skills we can teach to continue to challenge that student. We can track growth in a clear, understandable, explainable manner from test administration to test administration.”

NWEA provides the results ISTEP+ apparently does not. “Until the state of Indiana has an assessment that gives teachers timely, reliable and valuable data to inform instruction, Wawasee will continue to value the NWEA MAP assessment results to help teachers guide instruction for students,” she said.

Goshert added IDOE is beginning to form the ILEARN assessment committees.