State says Common Core math, English testing time to be reduced next year

Ohio’s new Common Core math and English tests will be about three hours per subject each year, the state school board was told this afternoon.

Jim Wright, the testing director of the Ohio Department of Education, said he is working with the American Institutes for Research to keep each exam to a three-hour maximum as AIR and the state develop new tests for next spring.

Wright told the board that some high school tests that require students to write longer answers might need more than three hours, but he hopes not.

“For the other grades, we will be there (the three-hour target) or go below,” he said.

That would limit the combined tests for those two subjects to six hours a year – well below the 10 to 11 hours students spent on the PARCC Common Core tests this just-finished school year.

It’s also the target that the Ohio House had sought through House Bill 74 earlier this year.

“I think they are listening,” said State Rep. Andrew Brenner, the Powell Republican, who sponsored HB 74.

He added: “That is a huge win for students and schools.”

State Superintendent Richard Ross said he and Wright believe they can create a quality test that takes three hours. And he said he wanted to meet the legislature’s request so he can avoid having major controversy again next year and having to re-do state tests all over again.

Between the state’s old tests, one year of testing through the PARCC Common Core testing consortium and then AIR, Ohio will have three separate tests in three years.

“We can’t be doing this every year,” Ross said. “We’re kind of jerking our schools around with all this.”

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