Kern wants to ease final testing timeline

One lawmaker wants to make the end of the school year easier on teachers by adding more flexibility to the final testing season.

House Bill 1303 would allow schools to conduct end-of-instruction tests anytime during the last 25 days of the school year. The bill’s author, state Rep. Sally Kern (R- Bethany), believes this move would make the end of the school year less hectic on educators already pressed with a tight schedule. That’s something Kern, a former teacher, knows about personally.

“Teachers have asked for more time with students to properly instruct them before the final tests of the year are administered,” she said. “Giving them more flexibility on this timetable should result in higher test scores.”

The current law dictates that tests must be conducted no earlier than April 10 and as near as possible to the end of a course. But Kern says that can be problematic for teachers.

“Under the current schedule, a few bad weather days can really create problems for school officials who deal with a lot of uncertainty waiting for the Department of Education to approve a new testing date,” Kern said. “And since not every school district begins the school year at the same time, some districts have more time than others before end-of-year tests must be administered. We need a law that is fair for every district.”