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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Obama Administration Calls for Limits on Testing in Schools

Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.
Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to “reduce over-testing” as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools.

“I still have no question that we need to check at least once a year to make sure our kids are on track or identify areas where they need support,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, who has announced that he will leave office in December. “But I can’t tell you how many conversations I’m in with educators who are understandably stressed and concerned about an overemphasis on testing in some places and how much time testing and test prep are taking from instruction.”

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

now that they have profited from the global educational products industry, the narrative changes.....how convenient, just in time for elections

Anonymous said...

I would prefer that the federal govt stay out of my child education all together.

Anonymous said...

Right-- Just in time for elections. You can expect more rhetoric about changing things that have been screwed up as we get closer to election day. Doesn't mean they will actually DO it. Typical political campaign tricks.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance, Arne Duncan.