“Learning is about so much more than just filling in the right bubble”, says Obama. “In moderation, smart, strategic tests can help us monitor our kid’s progress in school”, Obama said.
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This report contains material from The Associated Press.
He wants students to spend no more than 2 percent of classroom time on standardized exams. “The administration bears a few of the responsibility for this, and we are committed to being part of the solution”.
The President’s proposal comes as Congress is working to replace the roundly criticized No Child Left Behind Act.
Between pre-K and 12th grade, students in US schools take about 112 mandatory standardized tests. “The average student in these districts will typically take eight standardized tests per year, e.g., two No Child Left Behind tests (reading and math), and three formative exams in two subjects per year”, the report said. He said he wanted that for all young people. We should use classroom work, surveys, and other factors to give us an all-around look at how our students and schools are doing. The idea is for New Hampshire to eventually take the system statewide. It sounds like it will be looking for other pots of money that can be dedicated to rethinking testing.
More details on the plan will be released in January, CNN reported.
President Obama urged schools to cap standardized testing at 2% of classroom time.
In one of the most notable attempts to reduce testing, Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Miami-Dade County district in Florida, earlier this year cut the number of district-created end-of-course exams from 300 to 10 and eliminated them entirely for elementary schools.
The response to the principles has been a mixed bag.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton also welcomed the announcement.
Beth Berkey, a 7th grade language arts teacher at James Martin Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina, says student achievement can’t be measured by a test. And they have generally been pro-testing.
Obama’s next step will be to meet with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, teachers, and school officials in the Oval office on Monday to figure out how to reduce testing time. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.
“It’s common sense”, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Testing should help inform instruction, not drive instruction”. Their review will be central to how we build on our past accomplishments.
“But I also hear from parents who rightly worry about too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning both for them and the students”. “But that’s just the first lesson”.
As for the proposed cap, she, too, said it was less about the time and more about the quality of the assessment and the objective of the tests.
Flexibility on Teacher Evaluations: Federal rules requiring the use of test scores in teacher evaluations have angered teacher unions. “Anti-establishment candidates are getting more support than anyone could have imagined”, Jeannette Deutermann, founder of Long Island Opt-Out, said in a written statement. So the House and Senate versions of an update to the federal testing law are now pending resolution.
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The administration isn’t citing specific tests that should be continued or scrapped, leaving that decision up to the particular districts as testing differs from state to state.
