Charter school parents in Ohio aren't going to be able to avoid getting bit by the testing bug:
At a time of growing concern around the country about the academic accountability of charter schools, Ohio has mandated a new regime of testing solely for those schools that may force the shutdown of repeated low performers.Under a new state law, Ohio charter schools that meet certain criteria will have to give an extra set of standardized tests at the start and end of each school year, in addition to the regular state assessments given in all public schools.
A subset of those charter schools that miss state-prescribed goals for academic growth for three years in a row must close, under new requirements incorporated into the state budget signed into law late last month. No regular, district-run public schools are subject to the new testing requirements.
Odd. What are these new tests supposed to assess that the state tests aren't measuring? And if charter schools have to show high performance on these exams, why aren't all schools required to do so? The tests will be norm-referenced to boot, so the tests won't show how students do in relation to a standard, but how they do in relation to a large group of examinees.
Posted by kswygert at July 27, 2005 09:30 AM