PHOENIX — The last batch of high schoolers sweating getting passing grades on the AIMS tests can now exhale.
Secretary of State Michele Reagan signed legislation Friday to abolish the requirement students pass Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards to graduate. The repeal is immediate.
The move comes just in the nick of time: The writing portion of the test is set to be administered again on Monday, followed by reading on Tuesday and math the day after that — the last times the tests will be offered.
That doesn’t mean the battery of tests won’t be offered. But in removing the link between passing the tests and a diploma, it removes much — but not all — of the incentive for students to even bother.
The state already was on track to get rid of the tests, which are normally administered to high school sophomores, with the class of 2016 the last one required to pass all three sections to graduate. But that still left the current crop of juniors and seniors who did not pass the tests as sophomores on the hook, with the state offering multiple retests.
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The Department of Education figures about 33,000 students have taken the math portion of the test at least once and still have not passed. The agency says 20,000 have not passed the writing portion and 9,000 got a failing grade in the reading section. Some failed multiple sections.
Tucson Unified School District announced Friday it has canceled AIMS testing and will conduct classes next week as usual as a result of the new law.
Less clear is what, if anything, is going to replace AIMS.
Students are set to start taking AzMERIT this spring, short for Arizona’s Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching. The tests are based on the Common Core academic standards Arizona adopted in 2010.
But state lawmakers are moving to block the Board of Education from administering that, or any other test, linked to the Common Core standards.
The full House voted this week to require the state board to create multiple alternatives to AzMERIT, and permit local school boards to choose one of those other options. A more far-reaching measure awaiting House action would block any implementation of Common Core standards, and any tests linked to them.
No matter what, however, getting a diploma will not be linked to passing AzMERIT or whatever alternates might be offered.
All that, however, does not mean students who pass all their courses will graduate.
Last month Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation requiring students to answer at least 60 out of 100 questions taken from the test administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in their naturalization test. Failure to pass means failure to graduate.
Current seniors and juniors are exempt, with the mandate kicking in for the class of 2017.
Reagan was stepping in since Ducey is out of state at the National Governors Association conference. But Ducey press aide Daniel Scarpinato said his boss supports the signing.
Follow reporter Howard Fischer on Twitter at @azcapmedia.
