Goodbye, Third grade reading test

The Department of Public Instruction announced that it would drop the Wisconsin third grade reading test and replace it with the Terra Nova test. It also added Terra Nova testing in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. While the announcement was accompanied by lamentations ("we test them till the cows come home"), the change means that it will be easier to track student progress over time, since the scores on one year's test can be directly compared to those for the previous year.