Dive Brief:

• Major changes to the amount of time schools spend testing students could come under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act rewrite currently being discussed by Congressional representatives.
• The Senate version of the bill, the Every Child Achieves Act, includes provisions that would fund state audits of their testing regimens and encourage states to cap time spent testing.
• The annual federally-mandated tests established under No Child Left Behind — the bill's most-recent reauthorization — will continue, but could be shorter.

Dive Insight:

Most of the cutbacks to testing in the bill come from amendments introduced by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Michael Bennet (D-CO). Bennet backed provisions to have states cap the amount of testing time allowed and notify parents when districts go over their allotted time. In his home state of Colorado, backlash against testing has been fierce, and the state's legislature launched a comprehensive review of its testing regimen.

School administrators have long said that the heavy testing load can prevent innovation and limit how much teachers can do instructionally. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan lauded the Senate rewrite for cutting back on time spent testing. "This is precisely what the Obama administration asked Congress to take on, and it is an important step to help reduce overtesting and shift to fewer — but better — tests," Dorie Nolt, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, told NPR. 

Under Baldwin's amendment, states would also have to examine whether tests are relevant and reliable. That could open the door for new or altered testing approaches in federal, state, and local testing demands.

Recommended Reading

NPR: How The Big New Education Law Could Cut Testing Time