Department of Education Releases Plan To Shorten This Year's ISTEP+

The Indiana Department of Education sent guidance to school districts Wednesday evening explaining how schools will divide this year’s ISTEP+ test to make it shorter.

This comes after the IDOE and State Board of Education voted to move forward with a plan from two national testing consultants, hired by Governor Pence, to shorten the test.

Thirty-two percent of the questions Included in Part One of the assessment – which may begin next Wednesday – serve as pilot items for next year’s test. The plan to split sections among schools reduced the amount of pilot questions any given student will take by half.

The IDOE split Part One of the ISTEP+ (the open-ended portion) into two forms, and the forms will be divided by school. An IDOE spokesperson says they decided to split it among schools and not districts to divide the pilot questions evenly among various demographic groups in the state.

Here’s how the test is divided:

Mathematics

• Form 1: Session 1 (40 minutes, 4 items)
• Form 2: Session 2 (40 minutes, 4 items)

English/Language Arts

• Form 1: Session 3 (60 minutes, 4 items), Session 4a (25 minutes, 4 items), Session 4b (60 minutes, 1 item)
• Form 2: Session 5 (60 minutes, 4 items), Session 6a (25 minutes, 4 items), Session 6b (60 minutes, 1 item)

Schools will not administer the Social Studies test for Part One, but the related multiple choice portion in Part Two is optional for schools. The IDOE spokesperson says some schools wanted the option to give the social studies test for teacher evaluation purposes.

Dividing the sessions in half for each school cuts three hours and five minutes from the test.