Check out new N.C. exams

The Department of Public Instruction has posted samples of the reading, math, science, algebra, biology and English II exams that students will take this spring.  The  "released forms"  --  presumably not the same questions students will see in May  --  are designed to help teachers prepare their students for the tests.

These are not the final step in the new testing that will be linked to new national Common Core standards;  the tests will continue to evolve in the coming year.  In my limited amount of scanning,  they didn't seem as different from the old End of Grade exams as I'd expected them to be.  Nor do I see any tests in new grade levels or subjects that are supposed to land this year.  But there has been so much talk and concern about the new tests that I'm eager to hear what the rest of you think.  (Acronym alert:  ELA is English/Language Arts.)

You can try the new online testing for the high school exams.  It took me quite a bit of clicking to get it to work  (you have to make sure pop-ups aren't blocked),  and when it did, the computer  had the nerve to tell me I'd gotten the first English question wrong.  Hmph!