The ISTEP Coup

ISTEP is Indiana's version of yearly high stakes standardized testing. Last week the students finished their first of two weeks of testing they will endure this spring. Schools around the state, urban, suburban, and rural, were in an uproar regarding the difficulty of the new test. Higher order thinking skills are being tested in a way they have not been previously, and many students were not prepared to deal with this, which leads me to the point of this post.

As a Montessorian, and someone who generally operates by common sense, I am passionately opposed to standardized testing and all the baggage that comes with them. My preferred course of action would be to fight for the elimination of them. Yet, this seems like an unbelievably steep uphill battle.

A ray of sunshine perhaps? The new move toward testing higher order thinking skills in theory, should favor Montessori schools, as that is what we see being fostered in our students as we follow the Montessori philosophy. If this leads to Montessori students scoring noticably higher, especially in urban areas, could it then lead to getting the attention of legislators and decision makers? Is the way to seeing more schools adopt the Montessori philosophy, to beat legislators at their own game?

The coup has begun.