Senate plan would give schools more time to prepare for common core testing
A leading member of the state Senate has proposed legislation that could give schools significantly more time to prepare students and teachers for assessments based on the new common core curriculum standards.
As proposed, SB 247 by Sen. Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, would delay the suspension of California’s existing Standardized Testing and Reporting system until July, 2016 – two years later than existing law.
The bill is silent as to when exactly statewide testing on the common core would resume but it could be as far away as the spring of 2017, legislative sources said.
The Liu bill comes in contrast to a sweeping proposal by state schools chief Tom Torlakson to revise statewide assessments that includes a call to follow through with a commitment to begin computer-assisted testing now in development by a national consortium.
Torlakson’s plan is to suspend the STAR system beginning in the 2013-14 school year. He would also begin the new