STAR suspended; state drills down on Common Core
New law eases transition to computerized assessments
November 2013
California has officially suspended its Standardized Testing and Reporting program for 2013-14, requiring instead that local educational agencies administer Smarter Balanced Field Tests under the California Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress assessment system, or CalMAPP, next spring.
Assembly Bill 484, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last month—sponsored by California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and carried by Assembly Member Susan Bonilla, D-Concord—mandates that all students in grades 3-8 and grade 11 take new Common Core State Standards-aligned tests in either English-language arts or math between March and June 2014.
“This bill will ensure that California’s schools can spend the next year focusing on teaching and learning the new core content standards in mathematics and English language arts. Without this focus and without suspending the current assessments for 2013-14, we would end up over-testing students and testing them on the old standards,” CSBA Legislative Advocate Erika Hoffman wrote to urge the governor’s approval of the measure.
“It is a much better use of our teachers’ and students’ time and effort to begin to implement the Common Core curriculum and preparing for the new Smarter Balanced assessments so that problems can be identified and solved prior to implementation in the spring of 2015.”
Some tests remain—with Common Core’s to come
CalMAPP mandates that LEAs continue to administer science tests in grades 5, 8 and 10 that are included in the California Standards Tests, the California Alternate Performance Assessment and the California Modified Assessment program. Also required under CalMAPP are the California Alternative Performance Assessment in ELA and math for students in grades 2-11.
Torlakson, a former teacher and legislator, lobbied hard for the testing changes. Like CSBA, he argued that it made little sense for students to continue taking STAR tests based on material no longer being taught, even as their schools transition to the Common Core.
“Faced with the choice of preparing California’s children for the future or continuing to cling to outdated policies of the past, our state’s leaders worked together and made the right choice for our students,” Torlakson said, going on to call the new assessments “a challenge for our education system—but a lifetime of opportunity for students.”