Today, the pressure to excel and succeed in school has reached a fever pitch.
How a class, school and school district perform on mandated standardized tests is as feverish as competition on “Dancing with the Stars” or “American Idol.”
The careers of teachers and school officials can be ruined because of how their students score on these tests.
The morale and self-esteem of students can be shattered because of the high pressure stakes of tests like ISTEP and IRead.
I bring all this up because of some fallout from the recent IRead third grade reading tests Indiana’s politicians foisted on Hoosiers this March.
As I read the data, I, like many, was stunned at the results for Flanner House Charter School. Barely a quarter (26.1 percent) of those students passed IRead. Worst performance of any Indiana public school.
I was shocked because student performance has been solid at Flanner House during its 10 years of operation as one of Indiana’s first charter schools.
I knew, though, that the dismal IRead results were devastating to the Flanner House staff and most importantly, to those third graders.
It didn’t help that Indy’s major media pilloried the school. A vicious Indianapolis Star editorial blasted the school and quoted the Mayor’s Charter School Office as saying that they would “take a hard look” at Flanner House’s operation.
Well, late last week, the state started providing 2012 ISTEP scores to Indiana schools. And guess what?
Those same Flanner House third graders pilloried by the Star, the mayor’s office and the media, slam dunked ISTEP.
Sixteen of eighteen (88.9 percent) Flanner House’s third graders passed ISTEP English/Language Arts and 61.1 percent passed ISTEP math! It also raises serious questions.
If a large majority of Flanner House’s third graders passed the harder ISTEP, which tests English and language arts skills, including writing and comprehension; but only 26.1 percent passed IRead; why the large gap?
Especially since a major part of ISTEP was given right after IRead?
Are these students’ performances in IRead a fluke; or their ISTEP performance a fluke?
Or did these Flanner House third graders have an off day on a test? And if so, does it warrant the hysterical reaction by the mayor’s office and the media?
Our schools and our community should use what happened at Flanner House to demand an evaluation of how these mandatory tests and their results are disseminated and reported.
Or remember that ISTEP and IRead isn’t a reality show. It’s real life with real consequences for our kids and our schools.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
Indy’s mainstream media have been hyperventilating as to why Democratic governor candidate John Gregg would pick a running mate, state Sen. Vi Simpson, who disagrees with him on some issues.
Simpson is pro-choice; Gregg pro-life. Simpson favors stronger gun control; Gregg supports the right to bear arms responsibly.
On major issues from turning Indiana’s economy around, positively dealing with education and cleaning up the messes in state government like budget errors, the crisis at the Department of Child Services and FSSA and much more, Gregg and Simpson share much common ground.
The local media forgets that President Barack Obama chose a vice president (Joe Biden) and a secretary of state (Hillary Clinton) who sometimes disagree with him on some issues. That healthy behind closed doors debating makes for a strong government.
I submit that the Republican ticket of Rep. Mike Pence and state Rep. Sue Ellspermann, a ticket of like minded, very conservative Republicans, is more constricted in their view of Indiana.
Our state faces great challenges and Gregg’s approach with Simpson is building a government that respects diversity. Unlike the Pence/Ellspermann ticket adhering to the Richard Mourdock/tea party philosophy of “our way or the highway.”
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IPS administrators and Superintendent Dr. Eugene White need to learn basic demographics and budgeting.
In a public meeting outlining plans to cut $27 million from next school year’s IPS budget, White revealed a budget predicated on staffing enough teachers to support an enrollment of 32,000 students.
That’s virtually identical to IPS current enrollment of 31,997. Yet, that figure’s fiction.
Next school year IPS loses four schools in the state takeover. Enrollment in those four schools this year was 3,806. If IPS loses just half those students they’d be down to an enrollment of 30,094.
For the past six years, IPS has lost an average of 832 students each year. You must assume IPS will lose roughly that many students next year because of charters, the new voucher program and continued population loss within the IPS area. Conservatively, then IPS’ enrollment could fall to some 29,262.
Why isn’t IPS staffing for the number of students they’ll actually enroll, which will be below 30,000? It’s another example of IPS’ abject lack of understanding of the demographic realities their district faces, demographically and from the competition with charter schools and school vouchers.
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This year’s 500 Festival Queen, Taylor Adams, is the second African-American to earn that prestigious honor. The first was Lauren Crowner in 2002; who lost her life six years ago.
Indianapolis native Janet Langhart becomes the second African-American woman to be inducted in Indiana’s Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Langhart was seen hosting in the 1970s on WISH-TV/Channel 8. But her media career included hosting TV shows in New York and Boston and co-hosting “Entertainment Tonight.”
Langhart later married former U.S. Sen. Richard Cohen, and was a powerful advocate for military families when Cohen was Secretary of Defense during the Clinton administration.
From a fellow Hall of Famer, congratulations to Langhart.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
