Mike Pence Orders Shorter Student Achievement Test In Indiana

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- After learning that kids would spend 12 hours taking the state assessment test this spring, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Monday ordered that the exam be drastically cut.

Pence held a news conference to get in front of a politically delicate issue for his administration and issued an executive order, demanding that the test be changed before the test is administered in the spring.

The governor said he recently learned that the new test would take twice as long as last year.

"Doubling the length of the ISTEP test is not acceptable, and I will not stand for it," a clearly agitated Pence told reporters.

Reports of the doubling of test times have been circulating for nearly two weeks. The blame for the increased times varies. Some blame the federal government for threatening to withhold funding, while others blame the state Department of Education for failing to devise a proper test to accurately measure more demanding state standards.

Pence said the executive order "mobilizes state resources" to get the text fixed. Basically, those resources would come in the form of consultants who would work with the State Board of Education staff and the test's writers with McGraw Hill.

The timeline is extremely tight, as it took months to develop the current assessment, raising questions as to whether a revised test can be done in time. On top of that, there are ongoing problems with the online portion. A trial run to test connectivity caused servers to crash, making testing impossible.

Pence also took aim at his political nemesis, state education Supt. Glenda Ritz, who has been a vocal opponent of the administration's education agenda, including lavishing more money on charter schools and private school vouchers.

Pence said he met for about an hour with Ritz, a Democrat, last week and that she never told him about the doubling of test times.

"I am really frustrated," Pence said. "This is a byproduct of the dysfunction of the State Board of Education."

Pence blamed foot-dragging and a lack of transparency during the department's test development.

Pence's executive order came just hours before state representatives were to debate a bill that would effectively strip Ritz of her powers as superintendent by allowing the board to appoint its own chairman.

The governor was facing a political backlash for the move against Ritz, who was elected in 2012 to the post. Ritz's supports said Pence was ignoring the will of the voters.

By blaming the testing fiasco on Ritz and the board, Pence gives himself political cover as he moves to stop what Republicans say is widespread dysfunction at the education department.