House Bill Removes ILEARN Scores From Determining Teacher Pay

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INDIANAPOLIS – ILEARN scores wouldn’t have to play a role in teacher pay, under a bill headed for the House floor next week.

For more than a decade, state law has required test scores to be part of the formula to evaluate teachers. House Republicans have made it a priority to repeal that rule. Schools could still use ILEARN scores in evaluations, but it would be a local decision.

Indiana’s teachers’ unions have made decoupling pay from ILEARN a top priority. They argue relying on test scores holds teachers responsible for something they don’t fully control, while reducing the value of things they do. Greater Clark County Schools union president Mark Felix says it’s demoralizing for teachers for part of their paycheck to hinge on a single day of the school year. He says teachers with higher numbers of low-income, special ed, or non-English-speaking students are likely to lose points in the pay formula, even if they’ve helped their students make big improvements.

34 states, including Indiana, require test scores to be part of teachers’ performance evaluation.

The House Education Committee endorsed the bill unanimously. But the Indiana Chamber is urging legislators to reconsider. The Chamber’s Jason Bearce notes on average, the scores make up five-percent of the performance formula, though some schools go to the maximum the law allows. He says that leaves plenty of room to consider the other things teachers do, and argues repeal would send a signal that objective measurements of student achievement don’t matter.

ILEARN scores would still determine schools’ A-to-F accountability grades, though a separate bill endorsed by both parties would give schools a mulligan for last year’s scores and this year’s, to give them time to adjust to the transition from the old ISTEP