As described in the Maryland Reporter, Maryland’s legislature is considering several bills raising concern with the amount of time spent on standardized testing.

From the article,

Senators unanimously passed SB 497, sending it to the House Wednesday morning. The bill creates a 19-person commission, including two delegates and two senators, dedicated to studying the effectiveness of Maryland assessments and standardized tests in public schools. . . The commission would report back to the General Assembly any findings of the tests being “duplicative or otherwise unnecessary,” according to the Department of Legislative Services.

Another bill, HB1137, seeks to address the amount of time spent on testing in pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. According to the Department of Legislative Services,

This bill requires the State Board of Education to place a moratorium on State standardized assessments in prekindergarten through grade 2 from the 2015-2016 through the 2016-2017 school years. During the moratorium, the State Board of Education may pilot a State standardized assessment in kindergarten in conjunction with a required report.

Though the bill’s crossfile received an unfavorable report in the Senate, teachers and education advocates spoke in support of HB1137 at its hearing today in the House Ways and Means Committee.

For more information, see the full story from the Reporter here.