A panel of educators and parents studying North Carolina's Read to Achieve program will ask lawmakers for fewer tests, more flexibility and a one-year reprieve in mandated penalties for kids who fail exams, the state Department of Public Instruction announced today.
The Read to Achieve Advisory Group's recommendations will go to the state legislature when it convenes in May. Meanwhile, the state Board of Education will consider proposals to relieve the testing burden on many local school districts at Wednesday's meeting.
The program is designed to make sure third-graders can read well before moving up, a goal almost everyone supports. But the specifics have proven problematic, especially a "portfolio" option designed as an alternative to passing a one-time state exam. In its current version, students who want to demonstrate reading proficiency through the portfolio have to pass 36 small reading assessments between now and year's end.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Hickory, Kannapolis, Mooresville and Union County schools are among the 16 districts seeking approval this week for alternative testing approaches (read their proposals here; click item II-B2 for a link).
In the longer run, the advisory panel is asking the legislature to scale back portfolio testing, give school districts more flexibility in school calendars and summer reading camps, and count the current year as a trial run for Read to Achieve.
Lynn Bonner at the News & Observer reports that Senate leader Phil Berger, the law’s champion, doesn’t like that last part.
Showing posts with label reading portfolios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading portfolios. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Third-grade reading: Less testing, more flexibility?
“No,” Berger said in a statement. “It’s wrong to let another class of third graders slip through the cracks. Passing them along unprepared has not solved the problem before, and it is not a solution now.”
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