INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana House approved a bill to replace the ISTEP exam by the 2018-19 school year.
The measure by Republican Rep. Bob Behning was approved Monday on a 67-31 vote and now heads to the Senate.
The proposed exam would be titled “Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network,” or ILEARN for short.
Supporters want the test to be shorter and take less time to grade. They also want Indiana educators to help develop and grade it.
The ISTEP has existed in one form or another for decades. But it became a politically charged issue in recent years after Republicans undertook a number of overhauls. Students across the state performed poorly on one recent version of the test that was not only more difficult, but also plagued by administrative glitches.
