The State Board of Education’s legislative package includes a recommendation that high school students take the state’s standardized tests their junior year instead of in their sophomore year as is now required.
This change would align the state’s testing schedule with other states that are also implementing the Common Core State Standards.
The recommendation — which now heads to the General Assembly for consideration — would phase in the change, and would not require districts to tests students in both grades.
“I don’t think there is any interest by this board to have tests in 10th and 11th grade,” Board Chairman Allan B. Taylor said of draft language of the proposal before the board.
Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor noted that was not the intention of the proposed changes, but rather an attempt to codify state law with Common Core that pushes back the tests by one year.
The board unanimously approved an amended version that spells out which grades districts will be required to test over the next several years.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
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