How much time do students spend on testing in school?
It’s a good question and one Chicago high school teacher has something of an answer: “In my school, in just three weeks’ time, I have calculated that we spent 738 minutes (12 hours and 18 minutes) on preparing for and administering standardized tests.”
I don’t know that anyone has done a similar calculation here in the overly-large school district, but I’m betting the numbers aren’t much different, and could be much worse for elementary kids.
And this teacher’s observation that “allegedly “optional” tests and interventions become–culturally, if not officially– mandatory” is certainly true in many, if not most of our schools. Administrators have come to believe that a testing opportunity is a terrible thing to waste.
Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog writes occasionally about a growing revolt against high stakes testings (including in today’s entry). If so, it hasn’t surfaced here, or evidentially in Chicago.