The goal of the plan, interim state education commissioner Brad Neuenswander said, was to reduce state testing at an age when students are busy preparing for life after graduation. The Kansas State Board of Education wanted to let schools choose whether to drop the state tests in favor of the exams students often take at that age anyway, such as the ACT and job skills tests.
This conflicts with federal testing requirements meant to ensure accountability, however, and Neuenswander said the U.S. Department of Education didn’t approve the proposal.
Instead, he said, the Kansas State Department of Education will now tweak high-school testing by restricting state math and English tests to the 10th grade.
Kansas students take state math and English tests in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school, but Neuenswander said some students were testing more than once in high school.
“We don’t want to be redundant or give more assessments than are needed or required,” said Neuenswander, who earlier this month joined state education leaders around the country in releasing a statement expressing commitment to responsible testing.
The state officials said in the statement that tests should be purposeful, not a waste of class time, and provide useful information for parents, teachers and students.
