Principal: We Spent Over Half Of School Year On Student Testing

GREENACRES, Fla. – Administrators at a Florida middle school report they’re spending more than half the school year on state standardized tests and district exams.

Officials at Okeeheelee Middle School report that students spent a total of 91 days of the district’s 180-day school year testing students on required exams in 2014-15, and allege the move toward computerized tests will only make matters worse, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

“We’re spending so much time testing (students), I can’t even teach them stuff to get tested on,” Okeeheelee principal David Samore told the news site. “It’s wrong.”

The Okeeheelee staff doesn’t track how many days individual students spend on state and district tests. The 91 day count reflects the number of full or half days students spent taking tests in general, but different students take different tests based on a variety of factors, such as the classes they’re taking and their learning ability.

School officials have spent the last three years tracking test taking with a large magnetic board that plots out the days students spend in testing.

“The months of October, January, February, April and May are almost entirely filled, cluttered with little magnetic strips bearing the subject tested,” according to the Sun-Sentinel.

“In middle school you have to test every child,” Jeff Shocket, Okeeheelee’s testing monitor, told the site.

Beyond the obvious impact the steady testing imposes on learning time, there’s been other ramifications.

More