A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the state board of education and the department of public instruction to provide summative feedback to parents, students, and teachers on the results of statewide tests and assessments.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑174.12 reads as rewritten:
"§ 115C‑174.12.  Responsibilities of agencies.
(a)	The State Board of Education shall establish policies and guidelines necessary for minimizing the time students spend taking tests administered through State and local testing programs, for minimizing the frequency of field testing at any one school, and for otherwise carrying out the provisions of this Article. These policies and guidelines shall include the following:
(1)	Schools shall devote no more than two days of instructional time per year to the taking of practice tests that do not have the primary purpose of assessing current student learning.
(2)	Students in a school shall not be subject to field tests or national tests during the two‑week period preceding the administration of end‑of‑grade tests, end‑of‑course tests, or the school's regularly scheduled final exams.
(3)	No school shall participate in more than two field tests at any one grade level during a school year.
(4)	All annual assessments of student achievement adopted by the State Board of Education pursuant to G.S. 115C‑174.11(c)(1) and (3) and all final exams for courses shall be administered within the final 10 instructional days of the school year for year‑long courses and within the final five instructional days of the semester for semester courses. Exceptions shall be permitted to accommodate a student's individualized education program and section 504 (29 U.S.C. § 794) plans and for the administration of final exams for courses with national or international curricula required to be held at designated times.
These policies shall reflect standard testing practices to insure reliability and validity of the sample testing. The results of the field tests shall be used in the final design of each test. The State Board of Education's policies regarding the testing of children with disabilities shall (i) provide broad accommodations and alternate methods of assessment that are consistent with a student's individualized education program and section 504 (29 U.S.C. § 794) plans, (ii) prohibit the use of statewide tests as the sole determinant of decisions about a student's graduation or promotion, and (iii) provide parents with information about the Statewide Testing Program and options for children with disabilities. The State Board shall report its proposed policies and proposed changes in policies to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee prior to adoption.
The State Board of Education may appoint an Advisory Council on Testing to assist in carrying out its responsibilities under this Article.
(b)	The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be responsible, under policies adopted by the State Board of Education, for the statewide administration of the testing program provided by this Article.
(b1)	The Superintendent shall notify local boards of education by October 1 of each year of any field tests that will be administered in their schools during the school year, the schools at which the field tests will be administered, and the specific field tests that will be administered at each school.
(b2)	The State Board of Education shall develop a summative analysis of the statewide assessments and tests administered in accordance with this Article for dissemination to local school administrative units, teachers, parents, and students. The Department of Public Instruction shall utilize an applicable component of the Instructional Improvement System to provide instructional feedback to local school administrative units, teachers, parents, and students as required by this subsection. This summative analysis for individual assessments and tests shall be disseminated within five days of a student taking a test or assessment, if practicable, or within a reasonable amount of time for the protection and integrity of the administration of a statewide test, to students, parents, and teachers as follows:
(1)	For a student, the student's parent, and the teacher of record for that student, the following information shall be disseminated on individual test items:
a.	Identification of the test item.
b.	The curriculum standard to which the test item is linked.
c.	Indication of whether the student's response was correct or incorrect.
(2)	For all students for which a teacher is the teacher of record, the teacher shall receive the percentage of students who responded correctly on a test item correlating with corresponding curriculum standards in order to assist the teacher in identifying specific areas in need of improvement for adjustments to instruction and future course lesson plans.
(c)	Local boards of education shall cooperate with the State Board of Education in implementing the provisions of this Article, including the regulations and policies established by the State Board of Education. Local school administrative units shall use the annual tests to fulfill the purposes set out in this Article. Local school administrative units are encouraged to continue to develop local testing programs designed to diagnose student needs."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies beginning with the 2015‑2016 school year.