Maryland plans to replace the standardized tests used to assess students’ math and reading skills at the end of next school year, members of the state Board of Education announced this week.

The exams students take now — known as the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, or MCAP — are unpopular in part because the format changes by grade and subject, making it tougher for students to prepare.

Currently, fewer than half of Maryland children are proficient in reading, and only 1 in 4 are proficient in math, according to the tests. The exams are mandatory in third through eighth grades and high school.

Kids in Maryland started taking the standardized tests in use now in the spring of 2019. The following year, the COVID-19 pandemic began, scrambling instruction as well as testing.

Geoff Sanderson, the Deputy State Superintendent for the education department, said the state’s contracts with its test vendors expire soon, and developing a new, better series of tests just made sense. State Superintendent Carey Wright led the push for the change.

“We have an opportunity now to improve our assessment practices, so let’s take it,” he said.

A more uniform format across the next suite of state tests might help lift those scores, and foster confidence in the results, Sanderson said.

“We want to be consistent through and through,” he said.

A state Assessment and Accountability Task Force recommended the timeline and structure for the tests. The group of nearly 30 education leaders from across the state started meeting in the spring and presented its ideas to the board on Tuesday. The board adopted the group’s proposals.

Currently, Maryland uses exams with a variety of formats.

One test type is called fixed-form — traditional tests with a set series of questions.

Another test type is known as computer-adaptive, and those tests are responsive to students’ performance in real time. Children who answer questions correctly get harder questions next, whereas a series of wrong answers result in easier questions. Answering harder questions correctly yields a higher score.

The third test type is called multi-stage. All students in a specific grade and subject answer the same set of questions in the first stage. Then they get routed to the next stage of the test based on their performance. This is the test style the task force recommended the state adopt across the board.

The group also recommended the state release some test questions each year to help the public understand the test format and better prepare educators and students.

Other recommendations made by the task force include: crafting test score reports that are easier for families to understand, developing mid-year tests that would give teachers an early read on student performance, and making assessment data available to researchers.

Now that the state board has adopted the task force’s broad recommendations on test design, the state will seek bids from testing vendors. A new contract should be awarded by late next summer.