The Assembly Education Committee has approved a CTA-sponsored bill to streamline and improve the state's jumbled testing system, align it with new federal testing guidelines required by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and free up more time for student learning.
AB 356, authored by Assembly member Loni Hancock (D-14) and co-authored by Gene Mullin (D-19), is now awaiting action in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
"This bill is the first step to bringing some common sense to California's testing and assessment system," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "It would also save the state millions of dollars during this budget crisis, reducing the need to cut other vital education reform programs like class size reduction."
The bill would exempt second-graders from the annual STAR testing program, aligning the state program with federal law.
It would also delete passage of the California High School Exit Exam as a requirement for graduation, but retain the exam as a primary testing instrument and allow local school districts to decide how they want to use it.
Finally, AB 356 would eliminate the flawed rewards and sanctions provisions in the Public School Accountability Act.
According to the California Department of Education, exempting second-grade students from the state testing program would save about $3.2 million.
"Teachers believe in testing students, but the testing mania that has taken over California is eliminating valuable classroom instruction time - particularly for our youngest students," says Johnson.
California is one of only two states that mandate standardized testing for second-graders.
"We need to let teachers teach," says Assembly Member Hancock. "With this bill we are trying to remove the pressures on students, teachers and schools at a time when we are cutting back funding support to them."