The Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Assessment agreed Tuesday on tentative recommendations for how to overhaul the state's testing system. Panel members want to take away the tests they feel aren't helping students - such as the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test (UBSCT), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Criterion Referenced Tests (CRTs) - and replace them with tests designed to give teachers and students immediate feedback they can use in the classroom.

The changes, however, would mean more time spent testing for Utah students, which has some educators concerned.

The panel will spend August holding public meetings across the state to get feedback on the proposed changes. They'll then reconsider the recommendations, which must be submitted to the governor by the end of September so he can consider including them in his budget recommendations to lawmakers, said State Superintendent Patti Harrington, who also chairs the panel.

"We'll go out there and listen, listen, listen," Harrington told panel members Tuesday. "Your job on this is not to defend but to explain."

But panel members might find themselves in a defensive position.

Already, the proposed changes are worrying some who say students are tested too much as it is. If the changes became reality, students in some grades would face an additional hour and half more of testing. Others would spend significantly more time testing.

Seventh-graders, for example, would go from spending six and a half hours testing a year now to 12 hours of testing. Kindergartners would go from 40 minutes a year to six hours and 40 minutes.

"It's too much testing," said Shauna Carl, an associate superintendent at the Salt Lake City School District, who filled in for one of the regular panel members Tuesday.

Utah Education Association President Kim Campbell, who does not sit on the panel, said she's also concerned about testing students more.

"We hear from teachers all the time they need more time for instruction," Campbell said.

But she said other parts of the recommendations seem promising. She likes the idea of implementing tests that give students and teachers immediate feedback they can use in the classroom. Now, many tests, such as CRTs, which students take toward the end of school each year, don't yield results until after the school year is over.

Harrington calls the current tests "autopsies" because they reveal results too late to help teachers instruct.

The panel wants to replace CRTs with online, adaptive tests given three times a year to students in grades K-12. Those tests would show teachers and students results immediately and would adapt in difficulty to fit students' skill levels as they take them.

"Teachers want to know more quickly and more often how kids are doing," Harrington said.

The panel would also like to see high school students take the ACT and several other tests instead of the UBSCT.

Now, if students don't pass the UBSCT but meet all other graduation requirements they earn diplomas that note they failed the test. Under the new system, students would have to demonstrate proficiency through the new tests to earn a diploma.

Though panel members were largely excited about the ideas, they acknowledged the plan is a long way from reality. Obstacles include test costs and No Child Left Behind requirements, among other things, panel members said.

The Utah State Office of Education estimates the changes could cost more than $67 million, mostly in technology expenses. They estimate they will save only about $5.8 million by not giving other tests.

But several lawmakers on the panel are already on-board.

"It seems to me when we get that kind of a thing in place, the richness of feedback to parents and teachers is going to be a good thing," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who sits on the panel.

Education leaders hope to pilot the changes in one school district next school year.

lschencker@sltrib.com