Idaho Governor Butch Otter vetoed his first bill of the 2018 legislative session Monday and it has to do with education.
Butch Otter
The governor put his veto stamp on House Bill 501, which would remove the Idaho Reading Indicator from the list of assessment tools that may be used to evaluate teachers in Idaho.
Last week the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee agreed 16-3 to funnel $443,000 to fund the new test, after House lawmakers killed the committee’s original proposal.
The new version of the IRI is computer-based, and tests an array of specific reading skills beyond simple reading fluency, which is the focus of Idaho’s current, 20-year-old Idaho Reading Indicator, which simply evaluates students on how well they read a passage. The new version is being tested in a pilot project this year at more than 50 Idaho schools, and was expected to expand statewide next year.
The governor stated in his veto message the reading criteria for Idaho grade-schoolers should remain as a way to measure teachers performance.
The early reading test targets kindergarten through third-grade students with the intent of identifying those falling behind. (KBOI, AP)
