Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett made a splash Tuesday with the release of 2012 IREAD-3 test results for the state’s third-graders. But maybe he should have waited a bit longer to leap into the pool.
No sooner had Bennett announced the numbers than his Department of Education sent out a notice that some of the numbers were being corrected. And two days later, there are apparently still inaccuracies in the data the state has made available.
It’s impossible to know how far off the reported data are from the actual test results. It’s probably not a lot, but it’s enough to matter to the affected schools.
“It’s unfortunate the data was not right before the state sent it out,” said Cameron Rains, director of elementary education for the Monroe County Community School Corp. in Bloomington.
IREAD-3 is the new reading test that Indiana third-graders must pass to be promoted to fourth grade. Three categories of students can be promoted if they don’t pass: special-needs students, English language learners and students who have already been retained two or more times.
Third-graders who didn’t pass in March can try again in July. In the MCCSC, those students have been receiving intervention and will be asked to take part in a seven-week summer reading camp, Rains said.
Part of the data problem involved students who attend private schools or are home-schooled but receive special-education services from public schools. Initially, those students were mistakenly coded as attending public schools. Continue reading
