It seems that many parents in NYC feel the way I do as expressed in my post yesterday: Educational Measurements: I’m So Sick of It.
But when parents at two Manhattan elementary schools discovered that their children had been selected to participate in “field tests,” or tests to help the state’s testing company try out questions for future tests, they decided to draw the line.
At a news conference in front of City Hall on Tuesday, the parents said they were organizing a boycott of the field tests to be given at their children’s schools — Public Schools 40 and 116 — later this week.
“We’re using tests to figure out how kids will test on tests,” said Jane Hirschmann, the founder and co-chairwoman of Time Out From Testing, an anti-testing group that sponsored the news conference.
If the test takes time away from classroom teaching I say get rid of it. You have to ask, who is benefiting? The kids already spend too much time preparing for and taking standardized tests. The stress on the kids and the teachers needs to be taken into account.
According to the Times, this increase in testing has something to do with the No Child Left Behind Law:
…because of requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Law coupled with the City Education Department’s decision to raise the number of diagnostic tests given to third through eighth graders — last year there as many as six — New York City’s public school students are taking more standardized tests than ever. And so the boycotters seized on the field tests, saying the testing company should figure out another way to conduct its research.
More testing might make officials feel like they’re doing something. But as every parent knows, it’s just time away from activities that really add to the quality of our children’s education.
And tests about tests, that’s just plain ridiculous