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Has testing gone too far? President Barack Obama now says “yes.” The president and the U.S. Department of Education have called on states to cut back on the number of standardized tests students take. After years of federal policies that encouraged frequent testing as a way to measure the success of schools, teachers and districts, the government has acknowledged their requirements may have gone too far. Obama took to Facebook to state his support of a new testing action plan that places a two percent cap on the amount of time schools spend each year on standardized tests. He also said no child or teacher should be evaluated on the performance of a single test. In a Facebook video, the president said teachers have told him the pressure to teach to tests “takes the joy out of teaching and learning.” The president also noted concerns by parents that their children have greater levels of test anxiety. A new study released over the weekend by the Council of the Great City Schools found that students pre-K though twelfth grade take an average of eight standardized tests a year. The president’s announcement was not without its critics. Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said 39 states have already taken steps to tackle unnecessary testing. "A federally imposed cap on testing time is not the best way to address this challenge," he said. "These decisions should be left to state and local leaders in education to decide who best understand the needs of students in their communities." In addition, pressure from the growing opt-out movement in which parents give permission for their children not to take state tests may have played a role in the new policy towards testing.Vocab
standardized
testing — a form of testing requiring all test takers to answer the same questions in the same way and scored in a consistent manner making it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups
opt-out
— to choose to avoid something, in this case to have a parent-signed form excusing a student from taking a test
Warm up questions
- What is the difference between a standardized test and a subject area test written by your teacher?
- How many standardized tests have you taken in your lifetime?
- Is testing a good way to measure how much you’re learning?
- What is the purpose of a test?
Critical thinking questions
- Why did President Obama make the decision to scale back on standardized testing now?
- What does he mean by asking schools to cap the time spent on testing to 2 percent? Does that seem like the right limit?
- Why might some say this issue should be decided at a local or state level?
- How might testing and other education policies become political debates in the upcoming presidential election?
