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Bill in the Legislature Would Shift Statewide Writing Assessment to 10th Grade
Summary
Assessment staff warned Senate Bill 39 would move statewide writing from eighth grade to tenth grade and fold ninth–10th grade testing into the standard 3–10 assessment, requiring changes to current field tests and reporting plans.
An assessment office staff member told Utah assessment directors on Jan. 16 that Senate Bill 39, if passed as written, would amend the statewide assessment code and shift the state's writing summative from eighth grade to 10th grade.
The official said the bill text posted to participants would revise code 53E-4-303 (the statewide assessment statute) and repeal 53E-4-304, consolidating grade spans so the standard assessment covers 3rd through 10th grades. “So we would include 10th grade in our standard assessment that would be for English, science, and math,” the staff member said during the meeting, adding that “the big change … was that writing, as the bill stands right now, is changing from 8th grade to 10th grade.”
Why it matters: the assessment office is currently field-testing a summative writing task for eighth grade; a statutory change would require reassigning development resources, expanding field testing to a different grade and altering reporting and technical plans for 2025 and beyond. The presenter urged LEAs and assessment directors to contact legislators with questions or comments about the proposal.
Details and next steps: the staff member said the bill would also change Utah Aspire Plus (UA Plus) from a strictly grade-based instrument into a course- or standards-based component aligned with the 3–10 assessment blueprint, which would remove the predictive ACT score from that instrument's reporting. “We would not necessarily Utah Aspire Plus, not the assessment as it is,” the presenter said, noting that blueprints and reporting features would change if the bill becomes law.
The assessment office plans to monitor the bill and flagged operational impacts: additional field testing for tenth-grade writing, updated test blueprints, and technical adjustments to reporting systems. The office encouraged districts that have concerns about writing-grade alignment to communicate those views to sponsors and legislative offices.
The meeting transcript includes the posted statutory citation numbers discussed and the staff member’s on-record description of how the change would affect writing and grade coverage. The office said it will notify assessment directors if the bill advances or if adjustments to field-testing schedules are needed.
