ISTEP

Republican legislative leaders are urging the state to use 2018 ISTEP scores for school letter grades and teacher evaluations this school year, instead of 2019 ILEARN scores.

Indiana high schoolers will continue taking the ISTEP+ as their final school assessment until its replaced by a nationally recognized college entrance exam like the SAT or ACT in 2022.

The ISTEP test vendor flagged some unusual data from the Frankie W. McCullough Academy For Girls in Gary in 2017, prompting the Indiana Department of Education to take a closer look.

The state has released this year's ISTEP scores to schools and corporations after running into grading issues late last month.

The full impact of scoring issues plaguing this year's ISTEP results remains unknown, but state officials aim to resolve the problems by the end of this week.

The Indiana Department of Education says results for the state's standardized test, the ISTEP, are delayed due to issues the exam's vendor reported as it finalized the data.

State schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick says keeping the 10th grade ISTEP exam for now is more practical than creating a new test for two years.

At Arlington High School, on Indianapolis' east side, more than 200 students -- including the entire junior class -- have yet to pass a standardized test required to earn a high school diploma. The staff goes to extreme measures to make sure all kids take the test.

Results from the 2017 ISTEP exam remain nearly unchanged after an overhaul of the standardized test caused pass rates to plummet two years ago.

ISTEP scores from Spring 2017 are scheduled to be released Wednesday. The standardized exam is used to calculate a school's state A-to-F accountability grade.