New Issue Forces State Board to Delay ISTEP+ Cut Score Setting

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana State Board of Education will likely not vote to approve cut scores for the 2014-15 ISTEP+ test during its regular business meeting today, due to information provided late Tuesday night by the Indiana Department of Education that raises questions about differences between the ISTEP+ online and paper/pencil tests.

The concerns center on a report by the Department of Education from October 2, but was not provided to the test’s Technical Advisory Committee, a team of state and national experts hired to monitor the testing process, and the State Board of Education until Tuesday night.  That report raises serious questions about potential differences in difficulty between the online and paper/pencil tests.

“It is unfortunate that information that is more than two weeks old was not provided to the State’s independent experts and Board members until the night before the Board meeting. In light of this new information, the Board will likely delay the cut score setting process until the experts have time to properly review the material and answer their questions about the test,” said Marc Lotter, Director of External Relations for the Indiana State Board of Education.

The State’s ISTEP+ Technical Advisory Committee and outside experts will review the new material and determine if differences between the level of difficulty between the online and paper/pencil assessments.

The State Board of Education is scheduled to hold a special meeting on October 28, 2015 to address new high school diploma proposals. If the ISTEP+ reviews are completed by that time, the Board could establish the cut scores during that meeting.