Here's a rundown of the current state of testing legislation in Ohio

House Bill 7 (Buchy): “Student Safe Harbor”

HB 7 assures that PARCC and end-of-course exams would not be used as a factor in any high-stakes decisions that determine whether students are promoted, retained, receive course credit, etc. during the current school year. This does not include retention under the third grade reading guarantee as the OAA is used for that purpose this year. The bill also provides more flexibility to retake end-of-course exams and ensures schools will not lose funding for a student who does not take state assessments during the current school year. The bill contained an emergency clause and signed into law on March 16th.

Senate Bill 3 (Faber/Hite): Education “De-Regulation” and Testing Provisions

In addition to provisions that would exempt “high-performing” districts from a number of regulations, SB 3 contains many of the legislative recommendations from Superintendent Ross’s report on reducing testing time. Notably, the bill does not include the elimination of SLOs for teachers in pre-K to 3 and grades 4-12 in non-core subjects. On the testing front the bill would:

Make writing and math diagnostic tests optional (rather than required) in grades 1-3.
Eliminate the fall administration of the third grade reading test. The test would be administered in the spring. Summer administration of the test and alternative assessments would be available for those who need to pass the third grade guarantee.
Put a time cap of 2% of the school year on state/district required testing and a time cap of 1% on practice for tests. Districts could exceed the caps with passage of a school board resolution after at least one public hearing.

SB 3 was also amended on March 24th to set the student growth measure in the OTES alternative framework at 35% (rather than 42.5%) and the teacher performance percentage at 50% (rather than 42.5%). The amendment also allows the use of multiple measures to fill the remaining 15% in the alternative framework. SB 3 was passed by the Senate by a vote of 24-9.

The Senate has also established an Advisory Committee on Testing comprised of teachers, administrators and others to make recommendations to the Senate on whether to keep or adapt the new tests or adopt an alternative. They are expected to issue recommendations by early May.

House Bill 64 (R. Smith): State Budget Bill

As introduced, HB 64 follows Governor Kasich’s executive budget recommendations. The bill included all of Superintendent Ross’s legislative recommendations on testing including the elimination of SLOs for teachers in preK-3 and grades 4-12 in non-core subjects. The bill would:

Put a time cap of 2% of the school year on state/district required testing and a time cap of 1% on practice for tests.
Make writing and math diagnostic tests optional (rather than required) in grades 1-3.
Remove the fall administration of the third grade reading assessment. The test would be administered “at least once annually.”
Require (beginning in 15-16) that a teacher's student academic growth factor be determined using a method established by the Department of Education for teachers for whom value-added data from assessments, either state assessments or approved- vendor assessments, is unavailable.
Allow the student academic growth factor to count for less than 50%, but not less than 25%, of a teacher's evaluation if the method determined by the Department applies.

The budget bill is still pending in committee and has yet to be revised by the House from Kasich’s initial budget proposal.

House Bill 74 (Brenner): Testing Revisions

HB 74 is currently before the House Education Committee and includes many of the provisions of Rep. Brenner’s testing legislation that cleared the House last session, with some notable changes and additions. The bill would:

Limit each assessment or end-of-course exam to no more than three hours.
Require that ODE put out an RFP for new assessments for which multi-state consortium are ineligible.
Change graduation requirements by reducing end-of-course exams to 5: eliminating English II and geometry.
Eliminate the requirement of online testing for 15-16.
Establish numerous studies or actions for ODE or the state board: security of student data, use of tests for multiple purposes, online use, capacity for online readiness, comments on content standards.
Eliminate writing and math diagnostics grades 1-3 with the exception of math in the 2nd grade.
Limit KRA to one hour and allow districts to administer beginning August 1st.
Require ODE to develop a measure for student growth that must be used by all districts that entered into an MOU to not use value added data on next year’s evaluations.
Have SBOE revise teacher evaluation framework to reduce time needed.

Thanks to OEA Government Relations for compiling.