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.