When NJ Kids Take Out No. 2 Pencils, They’ll be Testing the Test

When Bloomfield School Superintendent Jason Bing addressed the township council earlier this week, he gave a brief overview of initiatives that have taken place in the district this year, and expected changes in the coming year.  Among them, he said, were future changes in standardized testing requirements.

"New Jersey is one of many states that is moving from state standards to national standards," said Bing.

Accordingly, new article by NJ Spotlight is reporting that when elementary and middle school students sit down next month for the annual state testing, they will get their first taste of new national academic standards coming to New Jersey—and they may not even know it.

"The Christie administration will begin to “field test” questions derived from the new Common Core State Standards into the next NJASK tests, given to every student Grades 3-8," NJ Spotlight reported.

The practice questions are common in any state testing, unbeknownst to students and not counting toward their scores. But state officials said these will be the first in the state’s transition to a whole new battery of testing that will come with the Common Core, starting in earnest in 2015.

New Jersey is one of 45 states moving toward the Common Core standards, along with new testing that is being developed through a national consortium.

To read the NJ Spotlight article, go here.

--Bloomfield Editor Linda Federico-O'Murchu contributed to this article