HB 6623 - Student Assessments Summary

• Replaces prior mastery examination structure with new testing requirements effective July 1, 2013: students in grades 3-8 and 10-11 take annual reading, writing, and mathematics mastery exams in March or April; students in grades 5, 8, 10, and 11 also take annual science mastery exams.

• Removes restriction on endowed/incorporated high schools from mastery exam requirements and extends tenth-grade exam provisions to eleventh-grade students with certificate of mastery options and annual retake opportunities.

• Prohibits schools from using mastery exam scores as the sole criterion for student promotion or graduation.

• Requires Commissioner of Education to develop a kindergarten assessment tool by April 1, 2014, to measure kindergarten readiness without using results for program accountability.

• Directs Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive study of standardized testing impacts on instruction, curriculum, budgets, and administrative time, with findings due to the education committee by July 1, 2014.