Senate to Take Up Amended CTA-sponsored Assessment Reform Bill
(SACRAMENTO-13 May 2004) The state Senate is slated to vote this week on a CTA-sponsored bill aimed at reforming California's student testing and assessment system. AB 356, by Assembly Member Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), had already cleared both houses, but has gone back to the Senate for a concurrence vote on technical amendments made to the bill in the Assembly.
AB 356 will help eliminate unnecessary testing that is robbing students of instructional time. Among its provisions, AB 356:
- Aligns California's testing program with the new federal testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB requires that state testing programs begin in third grade. California's testing begins in Grade 2, subjecting young students to age-inappropriate testing.
- Eliminates the STAR test in Grade 2 after July 2005. That change would save more than $2 million annually and give students in these classes more instructional time.
- Refocuses assessments for children in Grade 2 on effective local measuring techniques including local diagnostic tests that are age-appropriate and useful to improving student performance and enhancing instructional strategies and curriculum choice.
- Requires the State Board of Education to report to the Legislature on alternative methods of assessing student competence for high school graduation purposes.
- Delays until 2005-2006 the requirement that students pass the High School Exit Examination in order to graduate.
- Eliminates unnecessary and ineffective monetary rewards from the Public School Accountability Act, retaining more effective non-monetary rewards for performance.
AB 356 is under fire from an educational special interest group, EdVoice. The group wrongly claims that eliminating counter-productive testing for second graders would eliminate all assessments of these students. EdVoice also wrongly asserts that parents would be misinformed about their child's achievement because a school or teacher could have low grading standards and performance expectations.
CTA Members:
Get in touch with your Senator and ask her or him to vote for CTA-sponsored AB 356 (Hancock).