A new push by the Obama Administration is asking state lawmakers to limit the number of required standardized tests in order to better maximize student learning.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who previously served as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, agrees that school testing has gotten out of hand, and he says states need to better differentiate between necessary assessments and ones that serve no educational purpose.
“We need to reduce the amount of unnecessary testing,” Bennet said Monday. “The tests that help us know how our schools and teachers are doing to help kids grow, and the tests that are used for teaching and learning purposes serve an important purpose. If done right, they can provide information we need to ensure our kids are receiving a great education. States and districts should limit the amount of testing for accountability purposes and ensure instruction time is spent teaching our kids.”
Obama appeared in a White House Facebook video on Saturday calling for an end to “unnecessary testing” and framing the push as a way of providing more free time at school for students to pursue more rigorous learning opportunities.
“Learning is about so much more than just filling in the right bubble,” Obama said. “So we’re going to work with states, school districts, teachers and parents to make sure that we’re not obsessing about testing.”
The video coincided with the release of a Testing Action Plan from the Department of Education which criticized the number of unnecessary tests and asked for states to require a 2 percent cap on classroom time devoted to assessments. The Obama Administration also acknowledged its role in helping to increase the number of standardized tests.
“In too many schools, there is unnecessary testing and not enough clarity of purpose applied to the task of assessing students, consuming too much instructional time and creating undue stress for educators and students,” a portion of the plan said. “The Administration bears some of the responsibility for this, and we are committed to being part of the solution.”
The president’s announcement also followed the release of a report last week from the Council of the Great City Schools, which found that students spend between 20 to 25 hours each school year on an average of eight assessments, including federal and state standardized tests.
The federal government’s power to step in and cap the number of statewide and district-wide assessments is limited, and the Education Department’s plan will serve, for the time being, as best-practice recommendations for states. President Obama has already said he does not plan to decrease the required federal assessments currently in place.
Bennet passed an amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act in July that instructed states to set a cap on the total amount of time students spend taking standardized tests. The Every Child bill, which was ratified with a 81-17 bipartisan vote, serves as the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Senate now needs to reach a compromise with the House, which passed its own bill along party lines.
“As the father of three daughters in the Denver Public Schools, I don’t want my girls to spend more time than they need on testing,” Bennet said. “We passed an amendment to the education bill in the Senate telling states to put a cap on testing, and we’re pushing for final congressional approval of the bill, which also overhauls No Child Left Behind.”
Edward Graham, a student at American University in Washington, D.C., is an intern with The Durango Herald.
