Governor announces changes for PSSA test administration
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf and state education officials delighted educators across the state when they announced plans Monday to reduce the amount of classroom time students spend taking standardized exams.
The state Department of Education plans to reduce the length of PSSA tests that students take in grades 3 through 8. The math test will be 48 minutes shorter, the English test 45 minutes shorter, and the science test 22 minutes shorter. Those changes could eliminate two full days worth of testing in some schools, according to the governor’s office.
The changes, which go into effect next spring, will affect hundreds of thousands of students. It is part of the state’s proposed plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law that replaces No Child Left Behind. Many educators say they spend nearly a month preparing students for the tests and administering exams.
“Teachers will be spending more time teaching,” said Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera.
Mr. Wolf said he hopes the changes will allow teachers to focus on providing students with a “complete education rather than preparing for one exam.”
The plan must technically be submitted to the federal government for approval, but state officials said they do not expect to encounter any problems.
Mr. Wolf’s announcement comes amid a backlash against PSSA testing in recent years by parents who have questioned the length and merits of the exam.
The news was greeted with acclaim across the state.
Locally, Dan Castagna, superintendent of the West Mifflin Area School District, said, “I think everyone in education would agree that this was a much-needed step in the right
direction.”
Patrick O’Toole, superintendent of the Upper St. Clair School District, said he was “thrilled with the change.”
“The feedback I received from parents is that there was too much testing,” he said.
The news was received enthusiastically in Philadelphia, where Cheryl Logan, the academic chief, said that the school system has been putting less emphasis on testing for the past two years. In 2015, a report by the Council of Great City Schools underscored what teachers, parents and studentshad long been saying.
Ms. Logan said she appreciated the governor using his “bully pulpit” to deemphasize testing, and said that Philadelphia would use this opportunity to examine its testing strategies more broadly. “There’s lots of things to work out, but I think this is good for kids,” she said.
Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Anthony Hamlet said he was pleased to learn of the plan, “which will result in 20 percent less time on statewide exams for our students in grades 3 through 8. This decrease falls in line with the work we haveundertaken as a district to reduce the amount of time our students in grades K-5 spendtaking tests.
“We heard loud and clear from teachers and families their concerns about the amount of instructional time lost to testing. We appreciate the efforts of Governor Wolf and the Department of Education to consider the voices of educators fromacross Pennsylvania to take these steps that will benefit students across the Commonwealth.”