It's testing season AGAIN in Indiana

My latest letter to my State Representative follows:

Dear Rep. Goodrich,

Last Fall I met your mother campaigning for you in front of the Hamilton County Judicial Center.  Although I am a Democrat, she was very persuasive and assured me that you would listen to all sides. She also said you were very supportive of public education and teachers. Based on your support of the proposed state budget proposal, I have my doubts but I hope you'll listen anyway. I'm a middle school librarian and will be giving the ILearn standardized test to a group of 6th grade this year. Although I'm not a classroom teacher, I have been involved in giving the ISTEP for over two decades now. I even spent one summer grading the essay portion of the ISTEP. I consider myself to be very well versed in giving this type of standardized test.

We recently received our schedule for this year's round of test taking. The time allotted for the average child's test-taking is just under nine hours. To ensure there is plenty of time for ALL students to complete the test plus teachers to give instructions and troubleshoot computer glitches, etc., my school has set aside 13 hours between April 24th and May 5th for testing. This does NOT take into account test prep or practice time. The entire school will be on our 2-hour delay schedule for six days. We will use the first  2 hours for testing and cram in actual learning in the remaining time. We'll need two mornings for Math tests, three for ELA, and one for Social Studies. Sixth grade gets an extra morning of testing for Science. 

This is so stressful and disruptive for everyone involved. Students are so dazed on testing days that they are harder to reach later in the day. There is only one real reason for giving these tests and it's NOT to improve Indiana's education. If that were the case, after more than 20 of regular standardized testing we should have the best schools in the world. No, the primary purpose of these tests is to rate our teachers and schools and to qualify for federal funding. I have never seen any of these test used to actually help a struggling student. Scores are sometimes used as justification for placement of a student in a particular program such as Special Education or High Achievement but there are simpler, less costly methods schools can use for this. 

It is my understanding that the three-year contract we have with AIR (American Institute for Research) is estimated to be $43,407,870.08 (see attached.) There are better ways to spend this money including giving our struggling teachers a well-deserved bump in pay.  I personally am 61 years old and currently make less than 50K a year. I have 30 years of experience in public education and a Master's degree. I also still owe over 40K in student loans. I could certainly use a bump in pay before I retire.

If the General Assembly is dead set against raising teacher salaries perhaps you could suggest using these test funds to hire more school personnel. Class size DOES matter - no matter what Betsy DeVos claims - and additional teachers are always needed. As a school librarian, I have found it very disheartening to see what has happened to Indiana's school libraries in the past decade. Since the law only requires one certified school librarian per school district, many of us lost our jobs back in 2010 and were replaced with low paid assistants. There have been many studies that indicate students excel when they have a school library run by a certified librarian. See: https://www.kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/  If the General Assembly really wants to improve Indiana's education, why not provide the funds (and legislation) for a certified librarian in EVERY school?

Your Legislative Update lists Indiana's funding priorities include education, school safety, and workforce development. Can you explain how ILearn fits into that? After testing students for more than twenty years I can assure you it doesn't. Get out and LISTEN to your teachers if you want REAL solutions.