The Ohio 8 Coalition represents school administrators and teachers in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, Akron and Canton. The group says the state needs to revamp its standardized testing process and supports the recommendations that came out of a Senate advisory committee.

One suggestion is to scale back the amount of testing from two phases down to just one later in the year. Kevin Dalton with the Ohio 8 Coalition says this is important for urban teachers who want to get away from a so-called “test and punish” model.

“Holding it annually ... towards the end of the year gives teachers the opportunity to provide more instruction through the entire school year, allowing students to demonstrate growth over the course of a year,” Dalton said.

 The Senate is expected to introduce legislation to make changes to the testing process.