School tests 91 of 180 days? Seminole proposes simpler plan
Most everyone with even the faintest of pulses already knows that school testing is out of control in this state.
The latest proof comes from Palm Beach County, where a middle school tallied the number of days in which classes were interrupted by testing and test-prep activities.
The finding: 91 days … out of 180.
Keep in mind: We're not talking about the regular old tests and pop quizzes that teachers want to give their students. Those are additional. We're just talking about the top-down, state- and district-ordered tests.
Orange County had to create 1,000 new tests one year just to keep up.
If that's your version of "learning," you must be from Mars ... or Tallahassee, where politicians and bureaucrats created the current testing insanity.
Still, repeated testing debacles have forced Tallahassee to admit that the current system is flawed. And legislators and bureaucrats have wisely asked for help from local school districts. (What a novel idea: asking educators about education.)
Well, the top-rated Seminole County district recently spoke up — with some solid ideas.
Superintendent Walt Griffin penned a letter to Gov. Rick Scott's education commissioner, Pam Stewart, where he suggested several changes. Namely:
•Florida should move to tests that are already nationally accepted (instead of continually trying to create new Florida-specific ones).
•Move to paper-based tests (Florida's computer-based system keeps crashing).
•Cut the amount of testing time.
"Our solution would take four hours to administer," Griffin later said, "as opposed to disrupting education for a month."
Amen, Mr. Superintendent.
And you'd think state officials would listen to Griffin — who runs one of theStandardized tests on 91 out of 180 school days? Nonsense. Seminole has plan to simplify - Orlando Sentinel:
