Sen. Steven Metcalf, D-Buncombe, has filed a bill that would prevent the State Board of Education from introducing any standardized tests into North Carolina schools unless they are required by the No Child Left Behind Act. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that the bill was prompted by “growing concerns that public school students are being exposed to too much standardized testing that takes away from classroom instructional time.”
When asked by the North Carolina Education Alliance how much classroom time is affected by standardized testing, Metcalf’s staff said that they did not know.
Another provision of the bill addresses annual competency testing in grades three through 12. According to the bill’s provisions, “Students who fail to attain the required minimum standard for graduation in the ninth grade shall be given remedial instruction and additional opportunities to take the test up to and including the last month of the twelfth grade,” giving students at least three years to attain what appears to be ninth-grade proficiency. Ninth-grade students enrolled in special education or those officially eligible for special education “may be excluded from the testing programs.”
Parents who are hoping that academic progress measurements would be opened to public review will be disappointed. The Senate bill stipulates that third-grade baseline measurements, taken 12 months before the third- grade end-of-grade tests, “are not public records as provided in Chapter 132 of the General Statutes.”
The bill gives the state school board the power to develop proficiency benchmarks, but eliminates language allowing for the creation of a high-school exit exam.
The Senate bill was proposed as a companion to House Bill 678. The House bill instructs that the State Board of Education shall “involve and survey” parents, teachers, and the public to “help develop academic content standard priorities and usefulness of the content standards.” According to Reps. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, and Margaret Dickson, D-Cumberland, primary sponsors of the bill, revised content standards in core academic areas should promote high expectations and in-depth content, be measurable whenever possible, and be clear to both parents and teachers, among other goals.
The language of H678 on remedial work and retesting is the same as that used in S699. Students have until the last semester of the 12th grade to pass the ninth-grade proficiency exam. How this would align with the progress requirement in the No Child Left Behind Act is unclear.
Part of H678 claims to include parent and public participation through surveys and a review of content standards. But parents and the public will be excluded from oversight in the assessment process. Baseline measurements would remain secret, in language excluding them from public record status under the General Statutes.
Under H801, high school students who fail one competency test may get a chance to try another. H801 would allow the state school board to substitute a nationally standardized test, or an alternative test of equal difficulty, for the state test. The Alternatives to School Competency Test bill was sponsored by Reps. Alex Warner, D-Cumberland, and Marvin Lucas, D-Cumberland.
Elementary and middle-school students could also be relieved of state end-of-grade testing. In S957, introduced by Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, a nationally standardized test would replace the current state-devised exams. Testing would take place over a total period of five days out of the school year. That’s the standard amount of time required to complete the full battery of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Stanford test, and other similar nationally standardized instruments. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, school officials’ resistance is expected to the Apodaca legislation.
Palasek is assistant editor at Carolina Journal.