Substitute House Bill No. 7011 seeks to amend Connecticut's laws regarding student state-wide assessments by repealing Section 10-14n and introducing new provisions effective July 1, 2025. The bill establishes a phased approach to mastery examinations for students in grades three to eight, with assessments in reading, writing, and mathematics beginning in the 2025 school year. Specifically, students in grades four, six, and eight will take these exams starting in the 2026 school year, while students in grades five, eight, and eleven will be required to take a science mastery examination and a nationally recognized college readiness assessment in grade eleven.

Additionally, the bill mandates that local and regional boards of education notify parents of students' mastery exam scores by October 1 each year and clarifies that mastery examination scores cannot be the sole criterion for promotion or graduation. It also ensures that the scores of multilingual learners enrolled for fewer than twenty school months are excluded from accountability index calculations. The bill includes technical changes, such as inserting the phrase "required subjects" to specify the subjects for which mastery exams are approved by the State Board of Education, aligning with federal law requirements for standardized assessments to qualify for Title I funding.

Statutes affected:
Raised Bill: 10-14n
ED Joint Favorable Substitute: 10-14n
File No. 721: 10-14n