COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio students almost certainly will spend less time taking state assessments next year, but lawmakers are not yet in agreement on how to make it happen.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
After a wave of criticism from parents, students and teachers across the state about the overabundance of testing in schools this year, lawmakers in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly are moving to slow what critics see as good intentions run amok.
A wide-ranging bill that would eliminate the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests in Ohio and limit state achievement tests to three hours per year passed the House on Wednesday, 92-1.
“Clearly, the implementation of PARCC assessments are not going well and need to be replaced,” said Rep. Andrew Brenner (R-Powell), sponsor of House Bill 74, which also reduces the number of end-of-course exams that high-school students must take and blocks the PARCC consortium from submitting a proposal for replacement tests.
Brenner said his bill overlaps in some areas with the 30-member Senate Advisory Committee on Testing, which issued recommendations two weeks ago, including the scaling back of new twice-a-year tests to once a year. The Kasich administration also has recommended reducing testing times.
In the legislature’s upper chamber, meanwhile, Sen. Kris Jordan (R-Ostrander) Wednesday introduced legislation to repeal Common Core education standards in Ohio and require more local input for the adoption of future standards.
“Common Core is the product of outside interests that forced a one-size-fits-all system on Ohio students with little input from Ohioans,” he said. “The problems created by Common Core will take time to resolve, but we can take the first step by restoring control over academic standards to the local level.”
The bill would prohibit the implementation of Common Core standards for English, language arts, and math for grades K-12, along with PARCC testing and any other assessments related to the standards.