Students may get a break from a few of their tests if legislation passed by the House on Monday gets into law. House Bill 3218 reduces the number of required tests to 18.
Rep. Lee Denney helped put the bill together. She said HB 3218 relieves schools from the requirements of end-of-instruction testing and retesting while meeting the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act, recently passed by Congress.
“Testing is an education policy problem we have discussed for years,” said Denney. “Not only are we required to test students by the federal government, but testing is tied to a number of accountability systems we have in place. However, there is reasonable debate over how much testing is appropriate and parents and educators have made it clear that there are currently too many tests. This legislation will eliminate three EOI tests and several grade 3-8 tests in the upcoming year and give the state education department the authority to make further changes.”
HB 3218 requires one English and one math test in each grade from 3 to 8, two science tests, one in grades 3 to 5 and one in grades 6 to 9, and four high school tests in English, math, science, and U.S. History. With the exception of the U.S. History test, all of those tests are a federal requirement.
House Speaker Jeff Hickman said the legislation brings a balance to classroom time and accountability.
“This bill will result in more classroom time for our teachers to teach and students to learn,” said Hickman. “It balances classroom time with accountability to ensure the billions of dollars Oklahoma taxpayers invest each year in our public schools is being used to improve the quality of education for our children.”
