(BATON ROUGE, LA) - Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley announced a significant reduction in student testing time. The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) is making immediate revisions that will reduce the time students spend taking state assessments by 20%. The changes to grade 3-8 ELA and math LEAP assessments will eliminate redundancies and streamline the writing portion of the annual tests. They were made in consultation with testing experts to maintain the integrity of these vital assessments and mark the first action in a long-term commitment for future reductions.
“We’re taking a responsible approach to surgically reduce standardized testing time without affecting accuracy,” said Dr. Brumley. “I hear constantly from parents, teachers, and students about this issue. These changes address their concerns while allowing us to still have reliable and valid results.”
In April 2025, students in grades 3-8 will experience shorter LEAP assessments. While these LEAP tests will still measure the same breadth and depth of the Louisiana Student Standards for ELA and mathematics, the LDOE removed some time-consuming redundancies that offered no additional significance to measuring student proficiency.
Students will test approximately 40 to 75 minutes less in ELA, depending on the grade. This is a result of reducing from two writing prompts in each grade to one. Students will test approximately 30 to 40 minutes less in math, depending on the grade. This is a result of eliminating four machine-scored tasks and two constructed-response tasks.