Common use of Reduction in Student Testing Clause in Contracts

Reduction in Student Testing. The District and the CTU are committed to reducing the amount of instructional time used to test and for test preparation. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, at a minimum the following assessments will be eliminated: Conditions for Learning Survey Winter administration, Pro-Core, science and social studies assessments, encore assessments used for SLO’s, STAR, CAP science and social studies assessments, grade 1 and 2 state writing diagnostics, and spring administration of the NWEA except for grades 2 and 3 which shall administer the reading NWEA assessment in May. Should a teacher outside of grades 2 or 3 choose to administer the spring NWEA assessments, that option shall be available. By July 1, 2019, CTU and CMSD will work collaboratively to reduce the length of Conditions for Learning Surveys, while maintaining validity. A District approved menu of aligned vendor progress monitoring tools will be made available for school to select and incorporate into their Academic Achievement Plan. If a school elects to include such assessments, language in the AAP shall include which grade levels/subject areas are affected, how the assessment tools will be used and whether the benchmark assessment are required. The CTU may provide any feedback about test scheduling to be considered for the coming school year via existing district–union committees (e.g. the Calendar Committee, TDES Steering Committee, Third Grade Guarantee committee, Humanware committee, etc.) through the end of the first month of school. Additionally, CTU may provide any feedback for testing calendars for future years through these same existing committees by February 1. The feedback will go to the Academic Department for overall consideration into the testing calendar. Effective with the 2020- 21 school year, the District will annually, no later than May 1, make available the testing calendar, the purpose of and time required for each test, and statutory requirements related to testing for the purposes of review and feedback.