Bill Limiting Student Assessment Clears House

State Representatives Andrew Brenner (R-Powell) and Anne Gonzales (R-Westerville) today announced that the Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 228, legislation that makes modifications to standardized testing in Ohio.

The legislation is comprised of several provisions that work to address standardized testing issues in schools, including limiting the administration time for state assessments to no more than four hours, which allows more time for teaching, and also permitting districts to administer the kindergarten readiness assessment for up to two weeks before the beginning of school, which encourages more local control in the classroom.

"We have to listen to parents, teachers and students and be willing to be responsive to their concerns. That's the entire reason for this bill," said Rep. Brenner, who jointly sponsored the bill.

"I hope that the Senate will do the same, and work with us to still test knowledge in all subjects, while reducing the hours to a more reasonable time limit."

Additionally, House Bill 228 creates opportunities to improve student assessment by requiring the Department of Education (ODE) to study the impact of the online administration of state achievement assessments on student performance, which must be submitted to the General Assembly and governor by June 30, 2014.  ODE will also be required to develop a table of assessments and determine which components of the resident educator summative assessment may be used as part of the teacher evaluation system.

“The feedback we were getting from parents, educators and administrators was that our children were spending too much time in standardized testing,” said Rep. Gonzales, joint sponsor of the legislation. “This measure will help reduce that time and really let our kids get back to learning instead of preparing for the next test.”

The bill passed with bipartisan support and will now go to the Senate for further consideration.