A lighter load of state tests might be coming for Utah students.

A group of school and college bosses is talking about replacing some state-required tests. Replacements could include the ACT college entrance and related practice tests and, for younger students, adaptive, online testing, or interactive exams that get harder or easier as a child answers questions.

The idea is to truly see how much kids know to better help them achieve — and shape their future by showing the college-bound they need to better prepare, or by helping those who never thought about higher education to see that they indeed might be college material.

The talks are in the beginning stages, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington. And it's uncertain whether such tests would replace some, all or none of the current state tests mandated under the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students, or how proposed new tests would fit into state and federal laws demanding schools be accountable for student progress.

"I am not at all advocating the loss of U-PASS accountability ... (I) want to focus testing aspects of it around the children," Harrington told lawmakers at the Education Interim Committee meeting Wednesday. "We would today ... seek your unofficial blessing on the concept."

U-PASS requires students take year-end CRTs in language arts, math and science in second through 11th grades, a writing test in sixth and ninth grades, the Iowa basic skills test in third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades and the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test in high school for graduation.

But complaints have arisen that kids spend too much time on testing — up to 19 hours a year for high school juniors, according to a 2006 report from the State Office of Education.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. this week announced a blue-ribbon panel will look at ways to streamline tests and report recommendations at a November education summit.

The K-16 alliance has been looking at the tests, too, as part of efforts to create a more seamless public school-to-college connection. Its main question: Do the tests actually diagnose a student's learning? U-PASS yielded mixed results, Harrington said, and tests were thought to give relatively little information to parents and students.

But adaptive, online testing, given at least three times a year by teachers, might yield the opposite, Harrington said.

Uintah School District is using them. Scoring is on a continuous grade — if you score 100, it doesn't matter what grade you're in, the school knows exactly what level you're on, district curriculum director Leonard Sullivan said. The district this year is gathering elementary kids of the same skill set for the last 45 minutes of the school day to teach them concepts on their level, so everyone is challenged, he said.