N.J. moves to kill standardized tests for 10th graders

In its biggest step yet toward cutting down on the number of high-stakes tests New Jersey public school students must take, the state Board of Education voted Monday to eliminate math and English state exams for 10th graders.

The board voted 12-1 at a special meeting in Trenton to kill the yearly 10th grade state assessment tests, starting with the Class of 2023. That means this year’s 10th graders would be the last to be tested.

However, public school students in grades 3 through 9 will still be required to take the annual New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, formerly called the PARCC tests. In addition, 11th graders will still have to take a high school proficiency test or complete an equivalent assessment in order to graduate.

The vote to kill the 10th grade tests for about 100,000 students each year came after weeks of disagreement and inaction by the state board. The state had until early November to approve a new testing plan before the old rules expired.

Monday’s vote does not officially change the rules. The board authorized publishing the new regulations for 60 days of public comment, then there will be a final vote in February, board members said.

Some board members said they remain unhappy with the number of tests students must continue to take under the new rules. But they said they did the best they could to rewrite the regulations while still complying with state and federal testing laws that require tests in 9th and 11th grades.

“This is the best we can do within the circumstances that has been presented to us ... This is not the best we can do for the students of New Jersey,” said Andrew Mulvihill, vice president of the state Board of Education, who was the sole vote against moving the proposal forward.

State Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet defended the new testing regulations and said they were the result of people around the state collaborating on the best way to test students.

“This proposal is educationally sound,” Repollet said.

Some board members said they are concerned high school students will still be required to take an 11th grade graduation test during same year they will also be asked to take the SAT or ACT college entrance exam. They called on the state Legislature to change state law to modify the graduation requirements so students can take less tests.

New Jersey has been struggling with what to do with its testing plan since Gov. Phil Murphy was elected in 2017. The Democrat said he would “scrap PARCC Day 1” if he was elected. But eliminating the controversial PARCC tests — which use a computer-based yearly exams to gauge how much students are learning — has proven to be more complicated.

Under Murphy, the state has shortened the tests and renamed the PARCC exams. But the state isn’t expected to debut a replacement test until the spring of 2022, after the next gubernatorial election.

The state could not scrap all standardized testing because a federal law requires assessment until at least 9th grade and a state law says 11th graders need to be tested before graduating.

So, eliminating the 10th grade tests was seen as a compromise that would ease some of the exam burdens on schools and students. But not everyone agreed it was a wise move.

Sen. Teresa Ruiz, chair of the Senate’s Education Committee, came out against the the plan before the vote. She called it “irresponsible.”

“I think maybe political promises were made to reduce testing, so randomly the 10th grade exam was selected,” Ruiz, D-Essex, said.

Some state Board of Education members also expressed concerns that scrapping the 10th grade tests would mean the state would lose valuable data on how much high school students are progressing as they near graduation.

The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is among the groups calling for the end of the tests. They say the standardized yearly exams take time away from teaching and cause unnecessary stress for both students and teachers.

JerseyCAN and Better Education for Kids, two New Jersey advocacy groups, were critical of the newly-approved testing plan.

“It reduces accountability within the school system and will provide less information to families and schools,” the groups said in a statement. “It is now incumbent upon the Legislature to act to ensure our state maintains meaningful graduation requirements and that parents have access to timely data that can improve educational outcomes and better prepare our kids for college and career readiness.”

Staff writer Adam Clark contributed to this report.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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