When the Indiana Department of Education released ILEARN testing results for school districts around the state earlier this month, it was emphasized that this test was much different than the previous ISTEP tests.  Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board members received a look at just how different the testing regime was at a Tuesday morning work session.

The board viewed a video of an elementary student being shown an Interstate highway sign with one exit 1 1/4 (one and one quarter) miles away and the next exit 1 1/2 (one and one half) miles away.  The student was asked to determine the difference in mileage between the two exits.

The elementary student appeared stumped, not sure how to solve the problem.  After a minute or two, the student is then asked to solve the problem of 1 1/2 minus 1 1/4.  The student had no problem working the answer to that problem.

HSE Assistant Schools Superintendent Jan Combs used this example, illustrating  how ISTEP and ILEARN were different.  ISTEP was geared more to having students answer the question of 1 1/2 minus 1 1/4, where ILEARN would present the student with the “real world” example of a sign in an Interstate Highway.

Combs told the board this will help teachers and administrators better prepare students for the ILEARN test in future years.

There were other big differences between ILEARN and ISTEP, according to Dr. Combs.

ISTEP was a timed test, where ILEARN had no time limits for students to complete the test.

Also, ILEARN had a different testing path.  For example, if a student had answered the Interstate highway question correctly, the next question would be a more difficult question.  If the student answered that question incorrectly, a less challenging question would be presented to that student next.

In the 2019 ILEARN testing, 56.1% of HSE students taking the English Language Arts (ELA) and the Math test passed them both.  That compares with 73.5% passing both exams last year.  Last year’s test was the old ISTEP, with 2019 being the first year the state utilized ILEARN.

As far as how HSE students did on the individual Math and ELA tests – 64.3% passed the ELA ILEARN test this year, while 69.2% passed this year’s Math test.

Statewide, 37.1% of the students taking both the ELA & Math ILEARN exams passed both, compared to last year’s pass rate of 50.7% on ISTEP.  The statewide pass rate for just the ELA test was 47.9% and 47.8% for Math.

Administrators are now looking into ways to help students apply the skills learned in class with practice in applying those skills.