By Lisa Schencker

After years of rejection, the feds this week gave Utah permission to allow some schools to switch testing systems under No Child Left Behind.

"This decision keeps Utah moving forward as a national leader in providing next-generation testing and accountability for public schools," said State Superintendent Larry Shumway in a statement.

For several years, a handful of Utah school districts and charter schools have been part of a state pilot program that uses computer-adaptive tests, which change difficulty as students take them to gauge students’ ability levels. But until now, the U.S. Department of Education had refused to give Utah permission to let those schools give computer-adaptive tests instead of Criterion Referenced Tests (CRTs) to meet the requirements of the federal education law No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

That meant some districts last school year had to give students both sets of tests.

But Thursday, the State Office of Education got word that those schools won’t have to do that this year. Instead, they’ll only have to give computer-adaptive tests to meet NCLB requirements. The decision came amid a federal peer review process of the computer-adaptive testing program, said John Jesse, director of assessment and accountability at the state office.

"It’s a big deal," Jesse said. "It’s a significant thing for the federal government to say, ‘You know, we appreciate what you’re doing in Utah to try to move forward with this adaptive testing.’"

The Sevier, Juab and Millard school districts, Summit Academy Charter School, John Hancock Charter School and some other schools in the Alpine, Tooele and Duchesne districts are among those participating in the pilot program, Jesse said.

Many state leaders are hoping to see computer-adaptive testing be used statewide, saying they provide more useful, immediate results for teachers and students than CRTs. Utah is also part of a consortium of states that recently won federal stimulus money to develop a new testing system, which would include computer-adaptive testing, to reflect new academic standards. Those tests could be in place by 2014-15 and would likely replace CRTs.

In 2009, the feds imposed a nearly $60,000 penalty on the state office for allowing the pilot districts to move forward with computer adaptive testing in place of CRTs without permission.