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A bill that would abolish the college Rising Junior Exam unanimously
passed out of committee last week and has been making its
way through the 83rd General Assembly, receiving state-wide
support from both school administrators and students, Jan
Judy, Arkansas state legislative representative, said.
"We've come to a consensus from administrators that there's
some real problems with the exam," Judy said.
As state legislative efforts to abolish the state-wide Rising
Junior Exam continue, some University of Arkansas students
have begun to take an active role in supporting the bill.
Ben Hood, a University of Arkansas student candidate for Associated
Student Government president, has been working as a student
representative with state legislators on a task force for
the bill, Judy said
A group of ASG representatives, as well as ASG president and
vice president candidates John Forrest Ales and Lindsey Gergely,
recently met with Judy to discuss the bill's status and offered
their support of the bill.
"The bill I've gotten the most support for is doing away with
the Rising Junior Exam," Judy said. "The presidents of the
universities are in support of it, and students across the
state are very excited."
Arkansas law requires college students who have completed
between 44 and 60 hours to complete the test before moving
on to the next semester. It consists of one essay section
and four multiple choice sections designed to assess learning
in the general education curriculum for comparison to other
state schools.
Judy, who sponsors the bill as a representative of the district
that makes up the university, said there are numerous problems
with the test.
The State Department of Education didn't follow though with
comparing the test results, Judy said, which essentially defeats
the purpose of the test.
"The information wasn't being utilized," she said. "With the
amount of money the state spends a year administering the
test, if we're not utilizing it, we have a problem."
In addition, Judy argued the test is not fair to nontraditional,
minority or out-of-state students.
"It's not working and we're spending over a half a million
dollars administering an exam that's not effective," Judy
said. "The institutions would like to be able to choose the
tools that they use to evaluate their students."
Judy said schools should be allowed to petition to use a different
exam, an exam likely to be better tailored to students' needs.
But there are several other alternatives to the test yet to
be examined.
"The national mood is accountability for education. I do think
our institutions are held accountable and student should get
what they pay for," Judy said.
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