State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is recommending at least a one-year moratorium on most state standardized tests not mandated by the federal government, starting next year. The respite would give districts and the state breathing time for more complex tests being created for the national Common Core standards. Those tests, in English language arts and math in grades three through eight and grade 11, will begin in the spring of 2015.
Tests that would be suspended, with the Legislature’s permission, would include second grade math and English tests, social science and history tests, most end-of-year high school math tests except for Algebra II and the summative high school exam, and most high school science tests.
Science tests for fifth, eighth and 10th grades would continue, since they’re required by the feds under the No Child Left Behind law, although the state will start developing tests for the new national science standards that the State Board of Education is expected to adopt this fall. In 2014, California Standards Tests in math and English Language Arts in grades three through eight and grade 11 also would be given one last time.
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