RALEIGH - A state commission agreed today on a draft report saying “there is too much time spent on testing” and that several exams should be eliminated or no longer counted in the state’s testing program.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability agreed to recommend to the state Board of Education that the fourth-, seventh- and 10th-grade writing tests and the eighth-grade computer skills tests be eliminated.

The commission also agreed that the number of end-of-course exams used to measure how high schools are doing in the state testing program be cut from 10 to five. They no longer want to count physics, physical science, chemistry, algebra II and geometry, which if adopted by the state could lead to those exams no longer being offered.

In addition, the commission is recommending not counting new science exams in fifth- and eighth-grades in the state’s testing program. The state is only offering the exams for the first time this school year to satisfy federal requirements.

It’s up to the state Board of Education, which created the commission, to decide whether to adopt the recommendations. The commission will present its final report to the state Board in January.

“We’re testing more but we’re not seeing the results,” said Sam Houston, the commission’s chairman. “We’re not seeing graduation rates increasing. We’re not seeing remediation rates decreasing. Somewhere along the way testing isn’t aligning with excellence.”

The commission’s finding represent a strong backlash to the rise in statewide testing that has taken place over the past 12 years.

Since 1995, North Carolina public schools have been held accountable for how their students do under a variety of state exams. As time has gone on, the number of state exams has increased.

The state’s ABCs of Public Education testing program has also been tied into bonuses awarded to teachers for how well their students are doing. Some have complained that schools are now focused on teaching to the tests.

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