End To Excessive Standardized Testing? Why Teachers Students and Parents Are Saying BS
For almost 15 years Teachers Students and Parents have been saying that there is too much emphasis on Standardized Testing!
Nothing got through the Corporate Education Reform Bubble!
Nothing got through the Corporate Education Reform Bubble!
The Oligarchy
In Their Bubble They Refused To Hear Teachers Students and Parents !
The Presidents
In Their Bubble They Refused To Hear Teachers Students and Parents !
Governors
In Their Bubble They Refused To Hear Teachers Students and Parents !
THE DEFORMERS
In Their Bubble They Refused To Hear Teachers Students and Parents !
Corporate Education Reform Bubble!
TODAY: Did Arne Duncan Just Surrender on Standardized Testing?
Days ago, the U.S. Department of Education announced a dramatic policy shift on standardized testing of public school students. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, echoed by President Obama, admitted that a Council of the Great City Schools study was right—there is too much reliance on standardized testing, hurting schoolchildren, teachers and administrators. The Education Department, therefore, published a Testing Action Planwhich they claim will help states and school districts to roll back over-testing, at least to some extent.
This about-face is astonishing because Arne Duncan is substantially responsible for our schools’ overreliance on standardized tests. He made evaluating teachers by student test scores a condition of both federal Race to Top funding and his Department’s waivers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB). And it was Duncan who forced states to add standardized tests in subjects like social studies, science, languages, and even physical education.
So what will the Department of Education actually do? Will future policies match this new rhetoric? The only specific change is to support the two percent solution—that schools should not spend more than two percent of classroom hours per year giving standardized tests. This idea is already enshrined in the U.S. Senate’s proposed rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law.
But such a requirement would be nearly meaningless. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average school day lasts 6.64 hours and the average number of school days is 180 per year. Do the easy math and you’ll find that two percent equals 23.9 hours of testing in a year.
Compare that to the number of hours that students sit for tests, according to Council of Great City Schools. Remember, these are the hours that even testing advocates now say are far too many:
| Grade | Hours |
| Pre-K | 4.8 |
| K | 8.5 |
| 1st | 10.4 |
| 2nd | 11.9 |
| 3rd | 20.6 |
| 4th | 22.1 |
| 5th | 23.2 |
| 6th | 22.4 |
| 7th | 23.2 |
| 8th | 25.3 |
| 9th | 22.6 |
| 10th | 23.9 |
| 11th | 22.5 |
| 12th | 15.9 |
Clearly, the two percent solution very marginally helps average 8th graders, but doesn’t help anyone else. In fact, it allows schools to increase the amount of testing in 12 different grades.
But entirely besides that nearly meaningless requirement, it isn’t the time spent taking tests Did Arne Duncan Just Surrender on Standardized Testing?
10 Years ago Wapo's Uncle Jay Mathews Warned Us ALL
Let's Teach to the Test
NOW
Big Education Ape: Obama meets with educators to talk about standardized testing - The Washington Post http://bit.ly/1Wegkr3
Big Education Ape: Obama encouraging limits on standardized student tests - Yahoo News http://bit.ly/1WegnDi
Big Education Ape: Study: Students Burdened By Local, State and Federal Tests - US News http://bit.ly/1Wegpel
Big Education Ape: Suspicions Confirmed: Testing Action Plan is Trojan Horse | Save Maine Schools http://bit.ly/1S69Hqr
Big Education Ape: Fact Sheet: Testing Action Plan | U.S. Department of Education http://bit.ly/1OZZUlM
Big Education Ape: How Should Educators Respond to the Obama Administration's Concession on Test and Punish? | John... http://bit.ly/1OZYUOy
Big Education Ape: Education Lessons From A Sparkly District: USED's Latest Nonsense http://bit.ly/1Wegz5r
Big Education Ape: Oh what a tangled web we weave…. | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing http://bit.ly/1WegzT4
Big Education Ape: Reading Between the Lines: Obama's Testing Action Plan - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Cor... http://bit.ly/1WegAGF
Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: Obama's Testing Action Plan Sucks (And Changes Nothing) http://bit.ly/1OZYYxP
