Pence: Low ISTEP scores shouldn’t affect teacher pay

On Tuesday, Pence sent a letter to State Superintendent Glenda Ritz and the State Board of Education, saying lawmakers are creating legislation that will keep test results from negatively impacting teacher evaluations or performance bonuses.

Ritz has warned for months of more students failing this year’s ISTEP than previous years because of the transition, according to the Associated Press, and Pence’s actions represent a rare instance in which the Republican governor is siding with the Democratic Ritz. Since that time the vendor, Department of Education and nationally recognized testing experts reviewed data from the test to determine whether the different testing types were comparable.

Testing has been at the center of controversy over the past few years, and the tension continued after Gov. Mike Pence withdrew Indiana from the national Common Core standards last year.

Ritz has always been an advocate of pausing school A-F accountability grades for the 2015-16 school year due to this shift in state practices.

“I’m confident we can find a way to modify portions of our accountability system for one year without suspending it”, Senate President Pro Tem David Long said in a statement. The state is far behind its typical schedule of releasing ISTEP scores. On Monday, they said student test scores should be counted.