Parents Complain About Over-Testing

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Parental concern is rising around the nation as curriculum in many 
schools narrows to tests and test-prep

AT RICHMOND SCHOOL BOARD MEETING, TWO DOZEN URGE REDUCTION
PARENTS CITE TOO MANY TESTS FOR STUDENTS

Richmond Times-Dispatch -- January 18, 2007
            by Lindsay Kastner

Some Richmond public school parents say frequent testing is interrupting 
their children's education.

"I am concerned about the onslaught of assessments in Richmond Public 
Schools," said Fox Elementary School parent Mary Boyes, adding that she 
was particularly bothered by the testing of students from kindergarten 
through second grade. "I question the frequency and types of assessments 
our children are being given."

Speaking at a School Board meeting Tuesday night, more than two dozen 
parents called for reduced testing. In addition to annual state tests, 
Richmond students take a number of other tests throughout the year that 
aren't required by the state.

"My wife and I were naive," said Evan Davis, also a Fox parent. He said 
he knew his daughter would take Standards of Learning tests when she 
reached third grade. "We didn't know that as a 5-year-old she would also 
encounter nine-week and biweekly tests."

Because the students are at all different reading levels, the teacher 
has to test them one at a time, which causes the testing to drag on for 
days, Davis said.

"Quite honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of learning going on during 
that period," Davis said.

Wendy Martin has two children in Richmond schools.

She said she is not against assessment but noted that her first-grader's 
class includes students who are reading at all different levels and must 
constantly stop their lessons for testing every other week and every 
nine weeks.

"Every two weeks, these kids are getting a language-arts assessment 
determining where they are," Martin said. "It's wasting the time of the 
kids who are at the sixth-grade level. It's wasting the time of the kids 
who are still learning their ABCs."

She and other parents said that some of the purchased tests are poorly 
designed and would be better if Richmond teachers wrote them. Martin 
also noted that she considered moving from the city, in part because of 
the emphasis on testing, and knows of other families who feel the same way.

"You need to know, where the rubber meets the road, this is having an 
impact," she said.

Richmond Education Association President Wade Ellegood said the union 
surveyed its members about testing and that it plans to present the 
results to the School Board's curriculum committee Jan. 29.

"The board is listening to this concern," said School Board Chairman 
George P. Braxton II.

Also Tuesday night, the coordinator of school health services, Charlene 
Rodgers, said that seven sixth-graders have yet to receive their 
mandatory vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis and have been 
suspended from school.

State law required all public school sixth-graders to have the 
immunization by early December or be kept out of school. Irving C. Jones 
Jr., executive director of secondary education, said that the school 
district has been unable to locate the parents of three of the remaining 
seven students. The parents of the other students will be taken to 
court, he said.

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