Longer Standardized Tests Are Planned, Displeasing Some School Leaders (NY)

[alp227]

Source: NYT

Students across New York State will sit longer for high-stakes standardized tests in language arts and math this April compared with past years, education officials indicated Friday, drawing criticism from school leaders and parents who believe that lengthier tests are a move in the wrong direction.

A week after David Abrams, the state’s longtime testing director, was forced to resign after he sent an unauthorized memorandum about lengthening testing to school districts, officials declined to specify how much time they planned to add. Mr. Abrams’s memo said the tests would grow to more than four hours — over several days — for reading, from about two-and-a-half hours now, and to three hours or more for math, from an average of two hours now.

Top officials disavowed the memo and said the increases would not be so drastic. They said Friday that they would send the new times and other details to districts next week.

The annual tests, given to students in grades 3 through 8, will factor into teacher evaluations for the first time this year. Extending test times, state officials said, would enable them to field-test new questions that would not count toward a student’s score but could be used to develop future tests.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/education/longer-standardized-tests-are-planned-displeasing-some-school-leaders.html

[msongs]

1. longer tests = higher profits for test making corporations. nt

[StarsInHerHair]

2. it's all about crashing the school system....& the Post Office....& Soc Sec. etc

[roody]

3. less time for teaching and learning

[HubertHeaver]

4. There is already anecdotal evidence of the effects of

high-stakes testing. High school teachers (the older teachers) are finding that their students cannot read cursive writing. The reason? Cursive writing is not on the test so the teachers don't want to take the time to teach it. If it is not on the test, its not taught.

[roody]

6. Another reason they don't know cursive is that their writing

is so hard to read that we accept any form that is legible.

[plumbob]

5. There are 45 testing days out of a 180 day school year set aside in Texas

for the STAAR test, field tests, makeup tests, and benchmark tests.

Wild, eh?