(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - It's test time for students in grades three through eight across Indiana.
The ISTEP+ Applied Skills assessment test - short for Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress Plus - gets underway this week.
The test is an important part of gauging how well Indiana’s schools are performing, and what areas need improvement. Test data is used in the Indiana Department of Education’s accountability model, which grades schools on an A-F scale.
All students are tested in reading and math. Fourth and sixth graders will also be tested in science, while fifth and sixth grades will be tested in social studies.
For the first time, third-graders will be taking the IREAD-3 reading test. Their success on that will determine if they move on to fourth grade or spend another year in third.
High school students no longer take ISTEP+, but they are required to pass End of Course Assessments in English, algebra and biology after completing classes in those subjects.
School districts must complete their ISTEP+ Applied Skills testing before the assessment window ends on March 14. In April and May, students will be given the multiple choice portion of the ISTEP+.
ISTEP+ testing results were also a critical factor in determining if the state’s schools met progress requirements laid out in the federal No Child Left Behind law. However, the U.S. Department of Education announced last month that Indiana and nine other states would be given waivers from NCLB.
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