"Making Sense of ISTEP and Other Standardized Tests: A Discussion Circle with Authors Phil and Joan Harris" Tuesday, March 11, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Northwest YMCA, 1375 N. Wellness Way, Bloomington, IN Sponsor: Indiana Coalition for Public Education--Monroe County and South Central Indiana This event is free and open to the public. Please join us for a conversation about how standardized tests are developed and how the results are used. ISTEP has been used primarily to measure schools' performance since the inception of No Child Left Behind in 2002. In the last two years, the stakes for schools have increased with the implementation of the A-F grading system for schools and the new requirement that teachers' evaluations be based, in part, on their students' ISTEP scores. With ISTEP results being used as a major indicator of school quality, the test itself deserves some scrutiny: How are questions chosen? What is the difference between passing and failing? When students bring such variety of experience to the table, can any multiple choice test be fair to all? And does ISTEP actually measure what it purports to measure, student achievement? Phil and Joan Harris are the authors, with Bruce Smith, of "The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do." Their book contends that much of the commonly accepted knowledge about standardized tests is simply wrong, and that these misunderstandings have led to the distortion of the education of children and the judgments made about them, their teachers and schools. Phil Harris was on the faculty at Indiana University, in education and psychology, for twenty-two years, and is the executive director of the Association for Educational Communications & Technology. Joan Harris recently retired after many years teaching at University Elementary School.