JFAC has voted 16-3 in favor of Rep. Maxine Bell’s motion for a new budget for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction that includes the statewide rollout next year of a new version of the Idaho Reading Indicator, which is currently in a pilot project at more than 50 Idaho schools. That meant Sen. Dean Mortimer’s motion to instead just continue the $100,000 pilot project for one more year didn’t get voted on; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

The three “no” votes were form Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, the Senate education chairman; Rep. Steve Miller, R-Fairfield; and Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot.

State Superintendent Sherri Ybarra issued this statement:

"I'm thrilled and thankful the committee revisited and restored this budget request. We continue hearing overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers in the schools piloting the new test this year. This is a high quality assessment that gives a more detailed view than ever before of students' reading readiness and where they need assistance. I'm excited that our plan to extend this new reading test to all Idaho schools is moving forward."

Mortimer spoke passionately about his concerns over the test, which assesses Idaho kindergartners through third graders, fall and spring, to determine how well they’re reading. The goal is to get all students reading at grade level by the end of the third grade, which is seen as a key indicator for success later in school. The new version of the test, for which the state Department of Education contracted last year with Dallas-based vendor Istation, is computer-based, and tests an array of specific reading skills beyond simple reading fluency – the focus of Idaho’s current, 20-year-old reading test, which simply evaluates students on how they read a passage.

“This has been difficult for me,” Mortimer told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. “A month ago, I would have been in favor of a rollout of a statewide technology-based assessment.” Mortimer said he, and others, has been visiting with numerous reading specialists and educators to “listen and see what was really happening in our K-3 environment. And it has been an education of educations.”

Mortimer said his conclusion was that Idaho shouldn’t just look to a statewide, computerized test, but should also involve the teachers and reading specialists who interact directly with the young students. “What role does our teacher, reading specialist and others have in it? It is not addressed,” he said. “We’re simply saying take a technology-based assessment, and that’s what we’re going to use to measure statewide. I don’t believe that’s where we need to be.”

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, a longtime teacher, said, “I really appreciate all the good work that’s gone into looking at this assessment and how teachers approach readers.” She said that teachers use multiple forms of assessment “on a daily basis” in the classroom. “The Idaho Reading Indicator is an important tool, but it’s only one tool,” Ward-Engelking said. All, she said, need to be merged together into a comprehensive reading strategy.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, said she wanted to commend Mortimer “for the good work he has done investigating and researching.” But she said she’d support Bell’s motion. “My district really likes the current pilot program and wants to roll it out to all of our schools,” she said. “That does not preclude, in my opinion, coming back with more policy next year to add to the overall evaluation of the children, as we’re evaluating their reading abilities. So I really think that we’re on the right track, and this is just a first step.”

Sen. Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville, said, “I really compliment Sen. Mortimer for his extensive work on this and the passion with which he approaches this question. However, I think sometimes we get really mired down … with these decisions. As I look at this one, I see we have worked on trying to change germane legislation for two years.” But current state law, he said, calls for a single statewide early-reading assessment test specified by the state Board of Education. “That is the law we’re operating under now. We have no other direction,” Crabtree said.

“Secondly, in April 2016 we entered into a five-year contract. … There have been no egregious violations by them, we are in contract with them, and we need to honor commitments, because if we don’t, other contractors won’t want to do business with us as a state.”

Pete Koehler, chief deputy to Superintendent Ybarra, told the committee that the contract is structured so that it’s dependent on funding allocated by the Legislature each year; if lawmakers didn’t allocate funds, it would end.

“The contract is built on a year-by-year basis … as the money is allocated,” Koehler said. “This would be a statewide rollout. It would replace the legacy IRI with the new IRI.”

The five-year contract started with this year’s pilot project, at $100,000. Next year, the test will roll out statewide, at a cost of $466,000. The state superintendent requested the full funding, plus some training and administrative funds, for a total of $600,000 next year. The newly approved budget set by JFAC sets the figure at $550,000.

Bell told Mortimer, “Good gentleman, you’re light years ahead of me on your knowledge and what you know and what you’ve learned and your desires, I cannot even compete on that, I cannot. I do have faith that there are professionals in the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s shop, and I do know that they care about getting these third graders to read and know how to read. I also know one thing that’s pretty much boiler-plate for me: I need a budget. I need to provide a budget, and I need one that I can have the votes for.”

She said the budget bill needs to pass the House and Senate and win the governor’s support, “and to have the children continue to have the resources that they may learn to read in the third grade.”

Bell’s motion includes $283,800 specifically for the statewide rollout of the new IRI next year. It also includes $100,000 in the superintendent’s base budget as ongoing funding; that’s the amount approved last year for the pilot project, which the earlier budget that failed in the House would have removed. Another $166,200 already has been approved for literacy programs in the public school budget. All told, that adds up to $550,000 for the IRI next year.