Editor, Times-Union: This letter is in response to the current ISTEP uproar. There are several honor roll students who show failing results on the current “open ended” format test sessions. It is my understanding that the questions require students to write an actual phrase or give an interpretation as an answer, versus a multiple choice aka absolute right or wrong answer. These submissions are subject to more interpretations by people who grade them. If this is correct, how can you base something as important as public school funding upon a standardized test, that is completely subjective? It's contradiction in terms. The current conspiracy theory in my mind is somewhat validated by the deadline to get these results rescored. First, if there is a need to get them rescored via another metric, that in itself is an admission that the initial results are flawed. So in my case, I get a letter in the mail on the 10th saying if I don’t like the results I have from the 9th to the 13th to request a rescore. I immediately try to log into the Indiana Parent Network and it won’t recognize my password. I request a password change and it messages me it will require 48-72 hours to get a response. Are you kidding? I call the number and I am number 34 in line. I create yet another profile and finally get logged in, on the last day of the deadline, only to see that my honor roll student has failed to pass English and math. I jump down to the “Open Ended Items Rescore Request Form.” It states the form will be submitted automatically, there is no confirmation. It took me multiple attempts to get this straightened out and now here I am on the deadline day. The state doesn’t allow the schools to have access to this website or information except in a scrambled spreadsheet report. They cannot see what you are seeing on the site. The testing method and scoring metric do not coincide with classes as taught, and from my perspective are designed to sabotage scores in a political attempt to shed our public schools in a bad light. I believe this is a direct result of the current conservative war on public education. The ideology of privatization of essential services because somehow they are more cost effective. Do you really think the fate of our children’s future should be handed over to corporations whose primary motivation for existence is profit? If we stand back and allow this to continue at the state level, the current ISTEP debacle is only the beginning. Ted Carter Leesburg, via email
