ISTEP+ Testing

On September 2004 statewide begin ISTEP+ testing. But this year one change seems to have caused some confusion in schools. For the first time, the state is not issuing calculators, and some think the playing field will be unfair now that kids can bring their own.

"This is the calculator that they´re going to be using for the ISTEP+ and this is the calculator they will be using for the GQE," Kenneth Freeman, a math teacher at Arsenal Technical High School, showed News 8. He worries that his students will be at an unfair disadvantage next week when they take the Graduation Qualifying Exam.

Freeman’s school is providing its students with the inexpensive calculators that the state used to issue. This year, to save money, the state is not providing calculators. It is allowing students to use their own if they are not on a prohibited list.

Freeman showed News 8 an approved calculator that he says many of his students cannot afford. “It does order of operations, it does fractions, it does a lot of the things for the student that this one doesn´t do,” said Freeman.

"The basic four-function calculator is all the calculator a student needs," said Wesley Bruce, director of the testing division at the Indiana Dept. of Education. Bruce says students will only be able to use calculators on part of the exam.

"If there is any advantage for a particular type of calculator, those items are placed on a section of the test where you cannot use a calculator," he said.

In a memorandum issued to all schools, the Department of Education says that all items on the test can be answered without the use of a calculator.

Freeman says he is confident his kids could pass without the tools but he still believes all students should have access to the same resources or none at all.

The principal of Tech says she will probably require all her students to use the same school-issued calculators to avoid any problems.