Missouri senators debate decoupling school accreditation from state testing; sponsor lays bill over after hours of argument

Senator from Newton, sponsor of the Senate substitute for Senate Bill 360, used the Senate floor Wednesday to press a long‑running effort to decouple school accreditation from the state testing regime established under the 1993 Outstanding Schools Act. The bill would allow school districts to use third‑party, nationally recognized accreditors and to rely on locally chosen interim assessments, and it would create an advisory/coordination process for a 60‑credit transferable lower‑division core in higher education. After several amendment offers and nearly four hours of floor debate, the sponsor laid the substitute over; the bill was placed on the informal calendar for further work rather than voted on.

Newton said the bill aims to “divorce” accreditation from an assessment system that he and supporters contend has held schools “hostage” since the 1993 law. “As long as I’m here, I’m gonna fight for you,” the senator said, framing the proposal as a response to what he and other backers called opaque, computer‑adaptive assessments and a one‑size‑fits‑all accountability regime.

Supporters argued the change would allow local school boards and teachers to adopt nationally normed or locally appropriate interim assessments, give districts access to peer review and improvement planning from third‑party accreditors, and bring more transparency to what students are being tested on. They pointed to prior Missouri work (House Bill 1490 in 2014) to write state standards and said the substitute is intended to restore local flexibility and reduce disruptive statewide testing practices. The sponsor also offered a five‑year sunset amendment (expires August 28, 2030) that he described as…