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Dear Editor:
In this month’s column, Melba Kiser once again misrepresented multiple facets of education, specifically in relation to current legislation. As this now seems to be a trend, I have once again taken to ensuring the facts are presented to the public fairly.
To begin with, Ms. Kiser was incredibly selective of the language she used to discuss SB1. She said, “this bill requires certain schools … to offer summer school courses for students who are not reading proficient [sic] or at risk of not being reading proficient by third grade.”
It seems that in doing research, Ms. Kiser may have neglected to expand the bill on the website, as this sentence does little to summarize the real implications it has for Hoosier students and families but is the primary sentence if one does not expand the bill. The real meat of the bill states, “Beginning with evaluations administered in the 2024-2025 school year, requires retention of a student in grade 3 in addition to remediation if the student has not achieved a passing score on the evaluation.”
Missing from this bill, however, in its laundry list of additional requirements placed on schools, is an increase in funding to ensure its fidelity. Indiana has required retention previously and did little to nothing to support the remediation of students retained. A statewide focus on the science of reading is incredibly important! However, if the state legislators had investigated other states, such as Mississippi, seeing successes, they would have seen this goes hand in hand with funding.
Later in the bill, it: “Requires schools to administer the evaluation to students who are in grade 2.”
Ms. Kiser had previously commented that students under age 7 can learn elsewhere other than school, so I’m surprised she had nothing to say about this high stakes IREAD test now impacting even younger students than it has previously. We cannot talk about SB1 in generalities or omit its most important pieces. It will have a huge and lasting impact on all Indiana schools.
Interestingly enough, instead of digging into this Reading bill, Ms. Kiser focused on HB1353, and she once again omitted vital information. After this first line, the bill synopsis reads it: “Provides that the parents of any high school student may request a transfer from a school corporation in which the student has a legal settlement to a transferee school corporation in Indiana if the student may be better accommodated by the athletics program offered by the public schools of the transferee corporation.”
Approximately one-third of the bill text dealt with this transfer matter, which is far from the most important aspect of current education. However, it also includes a smaller reference to requiring a report of information.
Once again, if we discuss important legislative matters, we must focus on all pieces, and not omit those pieces that do not serve our narrative.
I would, however, love to make sure that everyone knows plenty of data is available regarding public school performance. It is not now, nor has it ever been, a secret. Public schools provide plenty of information on their individual websites, as do districts. There is also another central location to find data. Located at in.gov/doe/it/data-center-and-reports, interested parties can find all types of historical data about schools and corporations, even including archived ISTEP data!
Wouldn’t you know it – all that data already exists in an easy-to-navigate format. Undoubtedly, some groups, individuals, and organizations will be happy to learn this information.
Alyssa Roberts
Fishers