CA Gov Brown Wants Less Testing, Broader Curriculum

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

BROWN WANTS LESS TESTING OF CALIFORNIA STUDENTS, SAYS AIDE

Sacramento Bee -- January 18, 2012
By Kevin Yamamura

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to call for less statewide testing, and expanding 
lessons beyond math and English, in his annual State of the State 
address today, according to his top education adviser.

The Democratic governor faces a pivotal year as he asks voters to pass 
nearly $7 billion annually in higher taxes to shore up the state budget. 
At the same time, he wants lawmakers to reshape K-12 education by 
eliminating earmarks for school programs and redefining the state's 
yardstick for education performance.

Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board of Education, told K-12 
officials Tuesday that Brown will ask lawmakers to reduce the load of 
statewide tests students are required to take each year. She spoke at an 
annual budget workshop produced by School Services of California, which 
advises districts on how to plan for the upcoming school year.

"We think there's way, way too much testing in our system right now," 
Burr said. "Just as an example, a 10th-grade student takes 15 hours' 
worth of tests. So that sophomore is losing 15 hours of their 
instructional program."

Burr said that while some testing is necessary for measuring schools, 
Brown will ask lawmakers to "take (hours) away from testing and give it 
back to instruction."

She did not provide specific details, she said, because Brown was 
preparing to "roll these out (today) in his State of the State."

Gil Duran, the governor's press secretary, would not confirm the content 
of Brown's address. He said Brown was still crafting his speech and that 
only the governor knew what he would say today.

Since running for governor in 2010, Brown has criticized the current 
roster of standardized tests, which he believes focus too much on 
memorization. On his campaign website, he wrote, "Tests should not 
measure factoids as much as understanding."

Despite his distrust of the current system, he vetoed a plan last year 
by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg that would have required a 
new measurement system by 2014 with greater emphasis on factors such as 
dropout rates, college eligibility and career preparation.

In his veto message, Brown wrote, "Adding more speedometers to a broken 
car won't turn it into a high-performance machine."

The governor also expressed his apparent view that testing saps the 
benefits of learning: "SB 547 nowhere mentions good character or love of 
learning. It does allude to student excitement and creativity, but does 
not take these qualities seriously because they can't be placed in a 
data stream."

Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, said he was encouraged by Burr's 
remarks despite what he called his "dust-up" with the governor last year.

"How we evaluate schools determines what schools choose to teach," 
Steinberg said. "And I'm glad that the governor believes we've gone 
overboard on the testing piece. If we're in agreement there, the second 
piece is, what are we going to replace testing with?"

Students in grades two through 11 take the California Standardized 
Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests each spring, with results released in 
August. Students at all grade levels take English and math exams, while 
older students also take tests on science and history.

A study last year by the nonprofit Center for the Future of Teaching and 
Learning at WestEd found that 40 percent of California elementary school 
teachers said they teach an hour or less of science each week. The study 
concluded that elementary students lack access to "high-quality" science 
education, blaming it on state and federal testing systems that focus 
mostly on English and math.

Brown wants to shift the state's testing focus away from those subjects, 
Burr suggested.

"We've spent way too much time over the last several years narrowing our 
curriculum to English language arts and mathematics," she said. "While 
those are critically important, we can't ignore history. We can't ignore 
science. We can't ignore civics. We can't ignore the arts."

The governor also wants to give local officials greater control over 
what gets tested in their districts, a point Brown made last year in his 
veto message.

Burr said Brown will also pursue changes that seek to improve all 
educators, not just rewarding top performers and firing the worst. "We 
think that's a wrongheaded conversation," she said of the latter 
approach. "We must build the capacity of all of our teachers."

    
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/18/4195548/brown-wants-less-testing-of-california.html