Kansas Board To Consider New Student Testing

Members of the Kansas State Board of Education are considering approval of a recommendation for new tests that will determine student proficiency in math and English.

The board will act Tuesday afternoon on a proposal made during the November board meeting that Kansas use student testing from the Smarter Balanced consortium. The new tests are aligned to the Common Core standards that Kansas and more than 40 other states have adopted in recent years.

The tests will be administered to students in third through eighth grade. Districts will have testing options available to test high school students and how well they are prepared for some level of post-secondary education or to enter the workforce.

Currently Kansas uses testing provided through a center at the University of Kansas.