SCRANTON — As area students prepare for a second week of state tests, exams next year could look different.

The Every Students Succeeds Act, the federal education law signed by President Barack Obama in late 2015, replaces the No Child Left Behind Act and provides flexibility for states. Pennsylvania must submit its finalized plan to the U.S. Department of Education in September.

“It’s a great opportunity and a great responsibility,” Matthew Stem, the state’s deputy secretary of elementary and secondary education, said during a meeting last week in Scranton.

Each spring, third- through eighth-graders take Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams in English language arts and math. Fourth- and eighth-graders also take the science exams. High school students take Keystone Exams — end-of-course assessments in literature, biology and algebra. The state planned to make Keystone Exams a graduation requirement starting in the 2018-19 academic year, but that could change.

Ideas being reviewed by the state include:

  • Reducing total PSSA testing time by 20 percent, which could include the elimination of two sections of tests.
  • Testing students multiple times a year, instead of only in the spring. Some educators worry this would mean the state would dictate the order in which curriculum is taught in schools.
  • Eliminating double testing for eighth-graders, who take both the algebra Keystone Exam and eighth-grade PSSA.
  • Giving schools more control over intervention strategies, including allowing mental health and school safety measures as means to increase achievement.
  • Changing the way school success is measured by moving from School Performance Profile scores to a “Future Ready PA Index.” Along with achievement and growth indicators, schools would be judged by career standards benchmarks, postsecondary transitions and English language proficiency.

The state plans to have a draft of the plan available by early summer.

Assessments could change as early as next spring, with the first identification of schools in the bottom 5 percent — those that must implement intervention strategies — in fall 2018.

Few people attended the meeting in Scranton, held Tuesday evening at the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County and aimed as a way for the public to provide feedback. CTC employees made up about half of the 10 attendees. Many educators said they were unaware of the meeting, and the Department of Education provided no advance notice to news media because of a “technology snafu,” a spokeswoman said.

The department sent an email invitation to about 400 people, Cheryl Bates-Lee, PDE press secretary, said.

The meeting in Scranton was the final in a series of events statewide for providing an opportunity to the public to learn more about the future of education policy related to ESSA.

Forest City Superintendent Jessica Aquilina, the only superintendent present at the meeting, called ESSA “a step in the right direction.”

Aquilina, who informed all Forest City parents about the meeting, said she appreciates the increased local control and the additional measures for accountability.

“A lot of educators are looking at readiness and what it means to be college and career ready,” she said. “Pennsylvania is taking some steps in the right direction.”

Abington Heights Superintendent Michael Mahon called ESSA a “step forward.”

“We’ve been doing too much testing for years,” Mahon said. “It’s unfair and counterproductive to be losing weeks of time for assessments. … We really do question the need to have a longer exam for the PSSAs than we do for graduate school exams.”