Fewer Tests For Kansas Students

Kansas students will spend less time taking tests under recently announced changes.

The Kansas State Department of Education is reducing the total required material to be assessed by 60 percent next school year. Education officials said the changes follow conversations with superintendents, principals, teachers and advocacy groups during the latest round of testing.

Education department official Beth Fultz says there were concerns that students were “spending a lot of time out of class taking tests.”

The changes are possible because of revisions made to the federal education law. The revisions give more authority to states and local school boards, including how state assessments are administered and their results used.

More details about the testing changes will be made after school starts in August.

Associated Press information from: Lawrence Journal-World