I agree with the teachers. TOO MANY TESTS! (Also too much homework, which is why I am spending less time on my blog.)
Teacher group says schools should ease up on testing
Educators say they feel the pressure of ratings system.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, September 11, 2007The third week of school is under way. In other words, it’s time to start testing.
In the Austin school district, some teachers must start giving benchmark tests, which measures students’ strengths and weaknesses heading into the new year.
. . . . .
The statewide Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is the favorite punching bag of teachers and parents who say schools are too focused on tests.
But Malfaro said that much of the testing burden in Austin comes not from the state but from district officials who require teachers to give district-produced tests throughout the year.Ann Smisko, the Austin school district’s associate superintendent for
curriculum, said the district, like most, “regularly assesses students for one main reason: to ensure that children receive better, more focused classroom instruction.”Smisko said the district uses benchmark tests at the start of school to see where students are, in the middle of the year to measure progress and at the end to see whether students need extra help before moving to the next grade.
District officials said the number of days per year that a class spends on testing varies by grade and campus.
Ken Zarifis, who teaches eighth-grade language arts at Burnet Middle School in North Austin, said he and colleagues spend more than 40 of the 180 instructional days in a school year giving tests that they do not write themselves.
Those tests include state-written exams such as the TAKS and district-produced tests, such as six-week exams and the three-times-a-year benchmark tests.
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September 10, 2007 at 9:46 pm
It is all too true and unfortunately all of the testing leaves too little time for teaching. Even worse, the impulse for teachers is to “teach to the test,” which short changes students by not teaching them crucial skills in critical and analytical thinking and not encouraging them to make connections among the “facts” they memorize for the tests. As a college professor I see the results all too often in my students.
October 28, 2008 at 10:44 pm
i want my holiday!!!!!!!!!