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Thursday, July 25, 2013

How much time do school districts spend on standardized testing? This much.

How much time do school districts spend on standardized testing? This much.:

How much time do school districts spend on standardized testing? This much.

testsExactly how much standardized testing are school districts subjecting students to these days? A nearly staggering amount, according to a new analysis.
Testing More, Teaching Less: What America’s Obsession with Student Testing Costs in Money and Lost Instructional Time,” released by the American Federation of Teachers, looks closely at two unnamed medium-sized school districts — one in the Midwest and one in the East — through the prism of their standardized testing calendars.
Standardized testing has become the focus of modern school reform since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002, and continuing through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education initiative. Over the years, the time taken up by test prep and testing has risen, as have the costs and the lost instructional time.
The grade-by-grade analysis of time and money invested in standardized testing found 

 Questions remain over Rock Terrace investigation
As Montgomery County schools and state officials continue to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement at a school for disabled students, special-education advocates say parents should also be asking themselves whether their children were denied a “free and appropriate public education” as required by federal law. Read full article >>