Local students will begin taking the second portion of the state’s ISTEP+ test beginning April 17.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s second session for ISTEP covers the same areas as the first testing period in March for grades 3 to 8 and grade 10, said Missy Zimmerman, BCSC testing coordinator.
However, one major difference is that for this testing session, students will take the tests using computers, unless accommodations are needed to take the exam with pencil and paper, she said.
Third-grade students will be tested in math and language arts, while students in grades 4 to 6 will be tested in math, language arts and science, Zimmerman said. Students in grades 5 through 7 will be tested in math, language arts and social studies.
Eighth-grade students will be tested in math and language arts, while children enrolled in a high school biology course will take a biology assessment test, Zimmerman said. Students who are in 10th grade will be tested in the subject areas of math and language arts.
Any student enrolled in Biology I will also take the basic biology 10 assessment as well, Zimmerman said.
ISTEP testing is resuming as the Indiana Legislature continues debate on a new testing program, ILEARN, which stands for Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network. The bill is now being considered by the Indiana Senate.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. scores showed 56.7 percent of students passed both the English and math test sections in 2016, compared to 57.2 percent in 2015.