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New Jersey Changing Way It Tests High School Students For Graduation

By David Madden

TRENTON (CBS) -- New Jersey education officials are working to clear up some confusion regarding testing standards for high school students before they graduate. A new test will become the norm for districts throughout the state, but not for several years.

Nothing changes immediately. In two years, students will take the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test. But school districts won't be tied to those results for quite awhile, according to Michael Yaple with the New Jersey Department of Education.

"Kids will take the PARCC and if they pass it, great," Yaple says. "But if not, they can still reach certain grades through the SAT, the ACT test, the Accuplacer test or the military test. So schools will have a lot of options."

The PARCC test will not become the standard in New Jersey until at least 2019. Yaple adds things could change in the world of education that may push that date back further.

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