Reblogged from CLEMSY”S CORNER

Oh joy.

Yeah, the President says we’ve been testing too much. His plan is to reduce testing in grades three through eight from 2.34% to 2% of the school year.

Here’s a sampling of the media reaction:

In a stunning turn of events, President Obama announced last weekend that “unnecessary testing” is “consuming too much instructional time” and creating “undue stress for educators and students.” ~Common Dreams

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. ~NY Times

Stressed-out students nationwide, take note. Relief is on the way. ~CNN

From the same CNN article:

Two major teachers unions lauded the Obama administration’s announcement.

“It’s common sense,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “The fixation on high-stakes testing hasn’t moved the needle on student achievement.”

“It’s a big deal that the president and the secretaries of education-both current and future-are saying that they get it and are pledging to address the fixation on testing in tangible ways,” Weingarten said.

But, she added, “the devil is in the details.”

Such excitement! “It’s common sense,” said Weingarten. “It’s a big deal,” she said.

“The devil is in the details.” There’s your common sense, Randi. Let’s take a look at a little devil in the details.

Has anyone bothered to do the Math?

(180 school days per year x 6.5 hours per day) x 2% = 23.4 hours, or 3.6 school days per year (21.6 days over the course of those grades) spent on standardized assessments, and that’s not counting test prep and and local benchmarks. Read more>>