The following release was issued by the Indiana Department of Education:

The Indiana Department of Education released results of the 2016 ISTEP+ today.  Statewide in 2016, 66.1% of students in grades 3-8 passed the English/Language Arts section, 58.9% passed the Mathematics section, and 51.6% passed both sections.  Additionally, 64.9% of 4th and 6th grade students passed the Science section and 64.2% of 5th and 7th grade students passed the Social Studies section.

Also in 2016, 59% of students in grade 10 passed the English/Language Arts section, 34.6% passed the Mathematics section, and 32.2% passed both sections.  Additionally, 58.8% of students in grade 10 passed the Science section of the assessment.

The 2016 ISTEP+ test was the second year of a new state assessment for grades 3-8 based on Indiana’s more rigorous college and career ready standards.  As a result of the transition to new standards and assessment, a new baseline was established for ISTEP+ in 2015.  As has been seen across the country, multiple years are required for educators and students to fully transition to more rigorous standards and assessments.

2016 was also the first year of a new state assessment for grade 10 on these more rigorous college and career ready standards.  For this reason, grade 10 results are not comparable to previous years’ pass rates.  Instead, for the first time the high school results show the percentage of students meeting the new college and career ready benchmarks at each grade level.

Additionally, for the first time in more than 20 years, Indiana had a new state assessment vendor for the ISTEP+ assessment.  This change had additional impacts for students and educators during this implementation and transition year.

In response to these results, Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz issued the following statement:

“Transitions are never easy, but I want to applaud the students, educators and families across the state who have worked tirelessly to shift to more rigorous college and career ready standards over the past two years.  Today’s results reflect Indiana’s focus on student progress towards more rigorous benchmarks for college and career readiness.  However, it is important to remember that our students, schools and teachers are more than just a test score.

“I have spent the past four years working to get rid of inefficient and costly tests like ISTEP+.  Indiana has finally taken the first steps to making that positive change for students but we need to go further.  It is not enough to simply rebrand our current pass-fail, expensive and inefficient assessment system.  Indiana must instead take advantage of federal flexibility to move towards a streamlined, individualized, student-centered assessment that provides students, families and educators with quick and meaningful feedback about how a student is performing and how they have grown during a school year.  Students, educators and families deserve nothing less.”

Copies of the 2016 ISTEP+ results can be found on the Department’s website listed under ISTEP+ (2016).