Education Secretary Arne Duncan to outline education priorities and defend testing
As a new Congress gets to work to rewrite the 2002 federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, the Obama administration is drawing what Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls a “line in the sand”: The federal government must continue to require states to give annual, standardized tests in reading and math.
In a speech scheduled for Monday at an elementary school in the District, Duncan is expected to insist that any new law retain the trademark of No Child Left Behind, requiring that every public school student be tested annually in math and reading in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and also be tested in science at three points during those years.
“He will outline the need to widen and ensure opportunity for all students — the original purpose of this landmark law,” said Dorie Nolt, Duncan’s spokeswoman. “He will call for quality preschool for every child, improved resources for schools and teachers, and better support for teachers and principals. He will also call on states and districts to limit unnecessary testing so that teachers can focus needed time on classroom learning.”
The administration’s position comes amid growing anti-testing sentimentfueled by an alliance of parents skeptical of standardized tests, teachers unions that say using test scores to evaluate teachers and schools has warped education, and conservatives who argue that the federal government should play a much smaller role in local education.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. education secretary, university president and state governor who became chairman of the Senate education panel Monday, said he is weighing whether to ditch the federal requirement to test.
“Every parent, every teacher in 100,000 public schools is asking the question, ‘Are there too many tests?’ ”Alexander said in an interview Thursday. “I don’t know the answer. I’m asking the question. And the United States Senate ought to be asking that question as we think about No Child Left Behind.”
Alexander said the federal requirement appears to have created a cascading effect in states and local school districts, most of which now regularly test students during the course of the school year to make sure they are on track to succeed on the federally required exam at year’s end. And this year, as most states prepare for new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards, the testing debate has gained new urgency.
“It’s a good, healthy discussion that the country is having,” said Alexander, who has scheduled a Jan. 20 Senate hearing on testing and set an Education Secretary Arne Duncan to outline education priorities and defend testing - The Washington Post:
