by Sarah Schmidt
November 20, 2019
Testing—how much, whether to do it at all, and for what end—continues to be a question in K-12 education. Against a backdrop of mediocre results reported on The Nation’s Report Card and changes in the role of college admissions tests, there are initiatives at the federal, state and local levels.
The U.S. Department of Education has invited more states to participate in its pilot of new systems of assessment. The states, which can apply individually or as a consortium of up to four states, must submit a notice of intent to apply by Nov. 27. The notice of intent is non-binding and is intended to help the Ed Department plan for technical assistance and peer reviews. The application deadline is Jan. 27, 2020.
The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 created the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority to encourage states to pilot new systems of assessment in a subset of school districts before scaling statewide. Currently, four states are running pilots—Georgia, Louisiana, New Hampshire and North Carolina—and the Ed Department may approve up to three more.
Meanwhile, other states and some districts move forward with their own initiatives.
In New Mexico, the SAT will become the official statewide standardized test for high school juniors in spring 2020, after officials scrapped the PARCC assessments. New state exams for grades 3-8 also are planned.
New York City is set to begin adding tests—a new set of standardized tests for third- and sixth-graders this year at 76 public schools that the state considers low performing. The roughly 45-minute computer-based reading and math exams will each be given three times a year, with results expected to be available to teachers within 24 hours.
A complete look at the K-12 testing landscape, the changes and opportunities through 2022-2023 is available in Simba Information’s PreK-12 Testing Market Forecast 2019-2020. Additional information on PreK-12 Testing Market Forecast 2019-2020 can be found at www.simbainformation.com or by calling 888-29-SIMBA.
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