Obama Calls on Congress to Reduce ‘Over-Testing’ in Schools

It also found no relationship between the time that school districts spend on mandatory testing and how well their students do on national tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which are given to a sample of students every few years. Her reluctance to map out a detailed policy agenda that would scale back testing requirements and slow the spread of charter schools was a major sticking point.

The Obama administration, which spent its first six years in office arguably upping the ante on standardized tests by calling for them to be a part of teacher evaluations, has instead spent the last year encouraging states and districts to make sure that assessments are of high quality and don’t take up too much instructional time. I agree with President Obama and Secretary Duncan that we must reverse the overemphasis on testing that has become the norm in too many of our schools, and that is exactly what we have been doing in New York.

“Learning is about so much more than filling in the right bubble”, the president said in a speech posted on the White House Facebook site.

I’ve asked the Department of Education to work aggressively with states and school districts to make sure that any tests we use in our classroom meet three basic principles.

For more insight on that, I’m joined by Kate Zernike of The New York Times. Obama administration officials admit that in many instances, testing is redundant, poorly aligned with curriculum or just overdone.

The announcement is not a complete surprise. He also called out to school officials to take the steps necessary to curb down the number of tests and focus on creating meaningful exams. And at a Education Writers Association seminar in May, Duncan reiterated his position that testing had gotten out of hand.

A study released this weekend by the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of more than 70 urban districts nationwide, found that average total testing exceeds 20 hours a year when counting other standardized exams.

The opt-out movement that we have seen has largely been in suburban districts.

Bernie Horn, who serves as a senior advisor to the nonprofit Public Leadership Institute and who isconcerned about over-testing in schools, said it is understandable that many have greeted the administration’s recent pronouncements with skepticism. Language about “testing” is not. Poor students often suffer most, advocates say, as their schools are more likely to have low scores that put the schools under threat of sanctions.

Among other findings in the council report, four in 10 districts report having to wait between two months and four months before getting state test results.

Governor Cuomo will make his recommendations for Common Core at the end of the year and will announce his plans for standardized testing in January.

When the American Federation of Teachers endorsed Clinton early in the summer, there was an intense backlash from members who do not trust she would steer the Department of Education in a new direction.

“Everyone is culpable here”, Casserly said. “The result is an assessment system that’s not very intelligent and not coherent”.

Austin Superintendent David Krenz said he likes the fact that this topic is being discussed, but hopes it does not eliminate local testing.

KATE ZERNIKE: Well, I think the thing that is going to jump out at people is this – he wants a cap on the time spent on testing. “The time to act is now”.