CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Education hopes the state can “streamline” the standardized testing of students, State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria told legislators Monday.
DeMaria spelled out no details of how that would happen in his testimony to the finance committee of the Ohio House. That’s still to be determined in conversations with legislators and Gov. John Kasich.
But it was his first commitment to reducing testing, in response to residents across Ohio complaining last year that too much testing was their biggest concern with education in the state.
Residents expressed in several public hearings and in statewide polls that standardized testing by the state and districts, often just to evaluate the performance of teachers or predict how students would do on other tests, was excessive.
“We also heard many comments about the need to continue to focus on reducing the number of tests,” DeMaria told the committee. “For this reason, we are committed to an ongoing, inclusive process to identify specifically where Ohio can streamline its assessments and make meaningful modifications.”
He noted that because much of the state’s standardized testing is mandated by state or federal law, reductions could need a law change.
DeMaria’s testimony Monday offered some clarification the vague language in Ohio’s draft of the education improvement plan that it will submit to the federal government as part of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). That law, which replaces the controversial No Child Left Behind program, lets states set their own plans for making schools better and for identifying and helping struggling schools.
The draft plan released recently had not committed to seeking any reductions in testing. DeMaria and the Ohio Department of Education also offered no proposals for any testing changes.
“As part of ESSA, Ohio will reexamine its testing requirements,” the draft states. “The department is poised to work closely with the governor, legislature and education leaders to examine the pros and cons of adjusting the testing schedule– guided by the lens of what is best for future student success.”
Chris Woolard, the department’s director of school accountability, told The Plain Dealer Monday that any test reductions are unlikely to happen by the state’s planned April 3 submission of its plan to the U.S. Department of Education for review.
That’s partly because tests for high school students are being reviewed by a panel created by the state school board and which won’t have recommendations until April. That panel is reviewing the state’s new graduation requirements that make students score well on tests to receive a diploma.
Any changes to state tests for younger grades or for teacher evaluations would also need law changes that can take months, Woolard noted.
“We’re encouraging the conversation to reduce testing,” he said.
But he added, “We’re not at the point of asking to get rid of ‘X’ test.”
As we have reported previously, too much state standardized testing was the dominant complaint at the department’s feedback session for Cuyahoga County on the plan, held at Cuyahoga Community College in September.
It was also the top concern statewide, the state school board was told in November.
“The amount of testing was at the top, followed closely by concerns around charter schools,” Colleen Grady, the former Strongsville school board member who is now a senior policy advisor for the Ohio Department of Education, told the board then.
Lisa Gray of Philanthropy Ohio, who helped run the forums, told the board that she also heard complaints about “too many assessments that take too much time” at all of the forums, and from parents, community members and educators alike.
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