By CASEY SMITH
Indiana Capital Chronicle
Indiana’s State Board of Education is moving forward with a plan that “streamlines” K-12 education standards and makes it easier for teachers to craft individualized lesson plans.
Board members approved the early stages of the policy rollout during a monthly meeting on Wednesday. Paramount to the plan is a 25 percent reduction of statewide standards compared to what is currently in place. Only a third of the standards that will remain have been identified as “essential.”
House Enrolled Act 1251, an omnibus measure passed in the 2022 legislative session, tasked the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to narrow education standards and change the frequency of state standardized testing.
That streamlining of standards within the new law seeks to help students establish essential skills necessary to be successful after high school graduation. It also gives educators flexibility to help students meet those standards — including a greater ability to dive into more interesting topics in the classroom.
In response to the legislation, SBOE launched a comprehensive research effort to determine which skills and concepts are most important for Hoosier kids to master.
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers moved up the new standards deadline to July 1. Those standards will now take effect this fall for the 2023-24 school year.
“This was nothing short of an all-hands-on-deck,” said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner at the Wednesday meeting.
Streamlining standards
State education officials noted that Indiana’s academic standards are designed to identify what students need to know and should be able to do by the end of each grade level or course.
While they are not necessarily exhaustive, they define “minimal expectations” and provide some level of consistency across school corporations.
For example, the number of new third grade language arts standards dropped from 62 to 34 and merged three sections on reading literature, nonfiction and vocabulary into a single new section focused on reading comprehension.
Third grade math standards reduced from 34 to 24 and included a merging of sections on computation and algebraic thinking.
Many of the standards that were cut across all grade levels were those that students should have covered in previous years, according to education officials.
State standards are supposed to be reviewed and revised at least once every six years. But this time around, state lawmakers called for the standards to be reduced as a means of reducing “counterproductive requirements” on teachers and students.
The eight key “skills and traits” that have since been identified by education officials — and that drive the new standards for English, math, science and social studies — are intended to prepare students academically and for the workforce: communication, collaboration, initiative and self advocacy, problem solving, perseverance and adaptability, integrity, growth mindset, and information, digital and financial literacy.
Updates to standards are also pending for coursework in fine arts, physical education, integrated STEM, health and wellness, and early childhood learning.
With board approval for standards reductions, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) will now focus on making updates to statewide guidance and education resources. Professional development opportunities are also underway to help educators understand the new standards and how to best implement them in the classroom.
“To be frank, I wish the reduction wasn’t 25 percent — I wish it was 75 percent — but I think it’s a good start. This is better than where we were,” said board member Scott Bess. “When we talk about our teachers across the state, giving them more freedom within their classrooms to teach in the way they feel is the best way to teach, and not to have a thousand things to have to cover and check off, is incredibly important.”
Board member B.J. Watts added that he still wants to see more streamlining, but for now, “this will be a welcome, welcome relief button for teachers.”
Although board member Pat Mapes called cuts for middle school and high school standards “outstanding,” he voted against the new plan, saying he doesn’t think enough was changed for younger grades.
“I thought we were going to cut a lot more for K-2 — I don’t think we did enough,” Mapes said. “We have to be more prescriptive of what we want our kids to know.”
Byron Ernest, another of the 11 board members, also voted no.
“We’re still going to have multiple lists of standards that we have to work off of,” he said, noting that “more can still be done.”
Changes to ILEARN
Statewide standardized tests are typically changed in the year following new standards implementation — which means updates are now on the way for ILEARN.
State education leaders said a realignment of the ILEARN assessment to reflect the standards reductions must be completed not later than March 1, 2025.
The board considered — but has not yet approved — part of the new assessment plan, which includes “flexible checkpoints” for schools to administer ILEARN preparation tests in language arts and math before the typical end-of-year summative tests.
Each of the “checkpoints” will consist of 20 to 25 questions and hone in on four to six state standards. The exams are designed to be administered to students about every three months, but local schools and districts can speed up testing if they wish.
Unlike the end-of-year ILEARN tests, checkpoints are not meant to be “high stakes,” and results are not reported to the state.
Instead, the tests are designed to help teachers and parents see where students are throughout the year. Jenner said this will help educators implement remediations and interventions — like additional tutoring for students who need it — ahead of the summative exam at the end of the academic year.
“What we currently do is just kind of an autopsy, and it’s too late,” Mapes said. “The earlier we know where students are at, the faster we can get resources to them.”
Twelve other states already have similar models.
Among other tweaks, education officials said they’re still working out how to best serve transient students who might be in one district for one checkpoint point but a different district for another.
Board member Erika Dilosa said she also hopes the state and its testing vendors craft checkpoint questions that are more inclusive and “relatable” for students of color.
“When I looked at some of these assessments, there are some things that are hard to relate to for children of color,” she said. “And because of that, it can be hard to focus sometimes, and you kind of check out … when it seems to associate to our lives, we connect better.”
IDOE plans to pilot the checkpoint model in the 2024-25 school year, during which time schools will be able to opt-in to offering those assessments. The overall system is slated to take effect during the 2025-26 school year.
