Less testing, more learning

Monday, May 10, 2010

State testing has proven to be useless for helping improve our students’ education. For all the talk of “data-driven education” by the time teachers receive the results of spring testing, usually the next fall, it’s too late to respond efficiently and effectively to their students’ needs. But in the classroom of any reasonably competent teacher, student progress is being evaluated constantly, each time he or she looks at classroom work, not to mention frequent quizzes, papers, projects, and discussions.

 

Educational experts recommend that the testing burden on states be decreased by allowing them to assess students annually in selected grades in elementary, middle schools, and high schools. If we did adopt this “less is more” approach to testing, we’d look more like high-achieving countries such as Finland, which has no high-stakes testing program, or Singapore, Hong Kong and typical European nations or Canadian provinces, which test the equivalent of once each in elementary, middle and high school.

 

In a nutshell, these experts state that feds should help states develop systems that build on the assessments teachers already do, ensure the quality is good and reasonably comparable across the state, and then use statewide tests as an occasional supplement. That will enable teachers to go back to teaching, not running test prep programs.

 

What’s your take on this?

 

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