Lawmakers Seek To Move IREAD-3 Testing To Second Grade

INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana lawmaker is pushing a bill that would move the current Grade 3 reading assessment IREAD-3 to the second grade.

Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, has gotten feedback from her constituents that inspired her to co-author Senate Bill 169 with Sen. Peter Miller, R-Avon, and Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Bremen.

The goal is to identity reading struggles earlier so schools can provide additional remediation time – and reduce the chances that students could be retained for failing the test in third grade. The change could also provide more instructional time to teachers and students in grade three.

The bill means students who fail the test in second grade would receive remediation and retake the test in third grade. Students who failed again would receive additional summer remediation and take a third test. Failure would then require retention.

Houchin has met with many teachers over the last year to discuss educational concerns.

Teachers seemed to have the concern that between state mandated and local testing, roughly three weeks a year is spent on testing alone in the third grade.

Teachers and administrators also were in favor of moving the ‘high stakes’ feel from the exam, as students would not be held back if they failed the test. Moving the test also made teachers and administrators feel that the window of opportunity for these students to pass this exam would be much greater, and they could better prepare for testing they would encounter in the third grade.

“Moving the test from third to second grade will give more time for remediation for those students who are behind in reading skills,” Sen. Houchin said. “They will be remediated through the summer and third grade, and then retested at the end of third grade to try to catch those folks when they are transitioning from learning to read to reading to learn.”

Houchin said school superintendents in her district are major supporters of the bill. Ryan Haas, principal of Pine Ridge Elementary School in Southeast Dubois County School Corp., said he thinks “this is the best education bill we have seen in the Statehouse in years.”

Chris Stevens, principal of Orleans Elementary School in Orange County, said they “are in favor of extending the window of opportunity for our students to pass this exam” and “it would also help prepare second graders for types of state testing they will encounter as third graders.”

Principal Tom Rosenbaum of West Washington Elementary School in Washington County, comes from a school that saw a 100 percent passing rate on the IREAD-3 exam last year.

A committee member asked him why he would want to change anything, and he expressed concern that students who may not have passed would only have a month of remediation at the end of the year until they would retake the test. Even with a school that has a perfect passing percentage, Rosenbaum still feels some additional testing in second grade would be good to help students prepare for the large amount of testing in third grade.

Even with all of the positive feedback, there were concerns raised that involved the test not giving children information they need to identify, putting second grade students in a testing world that they should not yet be in, and the fiscal impact it would have on the state’s education funding.

Sally Sloan of the American Federation of Teachers Indiana expressed concern that the test did not really help the students.

Sloan said she believes the testing doesn’t give students the information they need to identify and remediate. She also said she doesn’t know how much funding would be available for summer remediation programs.

“I just think we have more questions than we have answers on this,” Sloan said. “Teachers are going to know where their children are no matter what test they’re taking.”

It may turn out that IREAD-3 will no longer be necessary, as new tests are coming in with the creation of new standards in 2016. Roni Embry of the Indiana State Teachers Association agrees with Houchin on some things, but says ISTA as a whole does not – believing it is not cost effective to spend $1.2 million on the new test.

Dr. Vick Smith, a retired educator, expressed concern that students can already take similar tests in the grades leading up to third grade called IREAD-K, IREAD-1, and IREAD-2. He also expressed concerns regarding the $1.2 million that would be spent in the transition year leading into new testing. Smith said he finds it unnecessary to put second graders into a testing world they should not yet be in.

Houchin said she is appreciative of the feedback she has gotten from constituents, educators, and other lawmakers.

“I think we are getting some great feedback on how to move this forward in a responsible way,” Houchin said. “If we can do something right now to help our classroom teachers catch problems, we shouldn’t wait until later to do that.”

The committee did not vote on the bill Wednesday and held it for further discussion.

Chris Arnold is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.