The subject is testing in Indiana’s K-12 schools and their effectiveness. The short responses include:
- Nate Schellenberger, ISTA: "We have a hodgepodge of things and they don’t correlate together. I think it’s an area a lot of time and money is spent on, and I don’t think it’s nearly as efficient as it should be."
- Vince Bertram, Evansville Schools superintendent: "We would take ISTEP and not have results back for months. So it was never designed to be useful data in terms of forming instruction."
- Derek Redelman, Indiana Chamber: "We’ve had a terrible testing system in Indiana." The state, he adds, has recently started to take advantage of technology advancements. Looking back and then ahead, he summarizes, "I think it’s been pretty awful, frankly, but I think we’re on the verge of having something that’s pretty neat."
This was just one of the subjects in a spirited BizVoice roundtable discussion. Read the full story, including the length of school days and years, district consolidation, dollars to the classroom, teacher quality and more.
Tom, Thanks for the article. Schooling is a step toward the goal, not THE goal. Too many people don’t understand this and some of them were on this panel. Shane was right that the world will solve this. I will flat out state that teachers, on the whole, are overpaid. My justification is the first rule of economics: supply and demand. Why does a 3rd grade teacher with 10 years make more than an AP Physics teacher with 5 years? How many people can teach math and science? Now answer how many can teach 3rd graders not to eat the paste. I know that’s cynical, but true. That may be part of the solution.
We were fortunate to have an excellent panel. David Shane understands these issues better than just about anyone, and a few more Vince Bertrams as superintendents would go a very long way.
OK. So one member of the panel and I disagree.
Did they address my previous post? What will they do about getting things changed and how does Tony Bennett play into this?