ISTEP was created by the Indiana General Assembly in 1987 and was administered for the first time in 1988. In its original form, ISTEP consisted of a multiple-choice component administered in March and a writing component administered in December. ISTEP originally was given in Grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, and 11. The General Assembly subsequently eliminated the writing portion of the test and testing in Grades 1 and 11. Minor changes were made in test forms between 1987 and 1995, but the general structure and content of ISTEP did not change significantly prior to passage of new legislation in 1995.

The 1995 law that changed ISTEP to ISTEP+ required a norm-referenced test (NRT) to allow comparisons of Indiana student achievement with national norms as well as a criterion-referenced component. The criterion-referenced component included a basic skills assessment with multiple choice questions and an applied skills assessment containing short answer or essay questions along with the solving of arithmetic or mathematical problems.

The law required that ISTEP+ must provide criterion-referenced scores based on questions that measure student achievement relative to the academic standards in mathematics and language arts established by the State Board of Education. The criterion-referenced component has always been by far the most important part of ISTEP+. Today, it is the only component.

The State Board established in 1995 that, beginning with the 1996-97 school year, ISTEP+ would be administered to Grades 3, 6, 8, and 10 in the fall rather than in the spring. The board enacted this change to enable schools to implement more flexible instructional approaches and programs to remediate students during the school year in which ISTEP+ is administered as well as in the summer.

In November 2000, the State Board adopted the Indiana Academic Standards that represent learning outcomes deemed necessary for successful performances in school, at work, and in the community. In 2002, the Grades 3, 6, and 8 ISTEP+ tests were modified to reflect the new standards in language arts and math. The standards were incorporated into new Grade 4, 5, 7, and 9 tests in fall 2003 and the Grade 5 science test was added. In fall 2004, the Grade 10 GQE was revised to also reflect the new standards. A 7th grade science test was first given in the fall of 2005. The ISTEP+ window begins two weeks after Labor Day.

ISTEP Information on the DOE Website (Site will open in a new window)

View ISTEP scores for HSE schools (choose the specific school from the pull down menu)