The Louisiana Department of Education is reducing standardized testing time for students

BATON ROUGE, La. (KSLA) – Louisiana plans to reduce the amount of time its students spend taking standardized tests.

On October 9, Louisiana State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley, called for a “significant” reduction in the time students spend on exams. The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) is making immediate changes that will reduce the time students spend taking state tests by 20%.

State officials say the changes to the ELA (English Language Arts) and math LEAP tests for grades 3 through 8 will eliminate layoffs and streamline the writing portion of the annual tests. According to LDOE, these changes were made with the help of testing experts to “maintain the integrity of important assessments.”

“We are taking a responsible approach to operationally reduce standardized testing time without compromising accuracy,” said Dr. Brumley. “I hear from parents, teachers and students all the time about this issue. These changes address their concerns while allowing us to continue to produce reliable and valid results.”

According to LDOE, students in grades 3-8 will spend less time taking the LEAP test in April 2025. The tests continue to measure the Louisiana Student Standards for ELA and math. However, the LDOE removed some time-consuming redundancies that they said had “no additional meaning to measuring student proficiency.”

With these changes, students will spend approximately 40 to 75 minutes fewer tests in ELA, depending on grade. This is because one of the two writing prompts is eliminated for each grade level. Meanwhile, students will spend about 30 to 40 minutes less on math tests, depending on their grade. LDOE says they eliminated four machine-scored items and two constructed response items in the test.

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