The Senate Education Committee voted 6-0 to give House Bill 1404 a do-pass recommendation, advancing the bill to the Senate with a recommendation to approve. Senator Axman moved the do-pass motion and Senator Wabamont seconded it.

The bill would amend the North Dakota Century Code to let students use the NDA Plus assessment, in lieu of ACT sub-scores, for the postsecondary-ready and workforce-ready scholarship pathways if the NDA Plus score is equivalent to the ACT benchmark. It also strikes an obsolete provision that allowed certain ACT sub-scores to count as an accountability indicator for students whose schools had used the ACT for statewide accountability testing in prior years.

Why it matters: The change formalizes a replacement pathway for students who take the NDA Plus assessment rather than the ACT, and removes a provision that the committee described as irrelevant after the state moved away from ACT-based school accountability for current students. Committee members said the amendment is mainly cleanup to reflect current testing practice.

Department liaison Jim Uphgren, legislative liaison with the Department of Public Construction, told the committee that the bill "does not completely remove the ACT from the requirements" and that the bill provides an "either-or" pathway: students may meet pathway benchmarks with the NDA Plus assessment where an ACT-equivalent score would otherwise be required. He explained the specific removal applies to a now-obsolete accountability use of the ACT (page 3, lines 14–16 of the bill text).

Senator Gearhart asked whether removing the obsolete wording could unintentionally prevent students who still elect to take the ACT from using those sub-scores; Uphgren replied the struck language applied only to past accountability uses and could be left in place without harm but is irrelevant because "after this year's seniors graduate, no student will have had the ACT as their accountability test." Representative Schreiberbeck had presented the bill to the committee.

The committee opened and closed a roll-call vote after brief discussion. The clerk recorded 6 ayes and 0 nays. Committee members noted Senator Axman will carry the bill.

Ending: With the committee recommendation, HB1404 will advance to the full Senate for further consideration.