WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

States looking to SAT, ACT for K-12 standardized testing

The wave of standardized testing has caused concern as voters and policymakers attempt to strike a balance between tracking student performance and avoiding unintended consequences like disenfranchising students with learning disabilities and teaching to the test. In Washington, the McCleary decision has only magnified these concerns as lawmakers look to find a way to meet our $4.5 billion obligation to fully fund K-12 education.

school testingOne means of striking a balance that is gaining traction in other parts of the country is to replace state-developed standardized high school tests with the ACT or SAT. The idea would be to cut down on the number of tests that students have to take throughout their career while at the same time better aligning graduation standards with college admissions standards. Only students who are career- or college-ready would be ready to graduate from high school.

According to the New York Times, which noted the trend in a recent piece on the rise of the ACT, several states are weighing legislation that would make the ACT or SAT a high school graduation requirement, in lieu of the varied state-based standardized tests currently being employed. Legislatures in Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming already require high school students to take either the ACT or SAT, though their graduation is not contingent on it.

It remains to be seen whether this new policy will take hold in other states, let alone Washington, but the idea is definitely being floated as a new education tool.