Are we testing kids too much?

Yes, I think we are...and it seems to be getting worse.

Are we learning what we need to learn from these tests in order to help our students reach their highest potential?

Not really.

Granted, I have spent most of my 22 years in education teaching in at-risk schools. I clearly have a heart for the underdog and haven't worked with many students for whom success comes easily or for whom recognition comes often.

It concerns (and sometimes infuriates) me that testing mandates are handed out with little or no attention to feedback from classroom teachers.

I believe there are serious flaws in our testing practices and programs. No one can know that better than the classroom teachers who work daily with the students they are testing and know what those students are capable of accomplishing.

There is nothing "standard" about standardized testing. The tests vary, the administration procedures vary (for example the two-week MI tests you mention seem to make more sense to me than forcing students to take a five to six-hour reading test in one day), the conclusions that are drawn from resulting scores vary.

Assessments that are more formative in nature tend to yield information that teachers can readily use. Tests that are summative tend to be less useful for instructional purposes for several reasons, yet these tests are highly convenient for making comparisons and strategic decisions about how and where educational dollars will be spent.

How can we make informed decisions if our information is faulty? I don't think we can.

Ultimately, children are the ones who suffer.

Yes, we are testing too much. We test so much that the students are getting burned out. All the tests are computerized so students don't know how to answer a question if there isn't an A The students with learning disabilities are tested on the exact same tests as other students. There are no accomidations given. Critical thinking is being replaced by cramming facts to regurgatate for a test. Teacher's salaries many tmes depend on the outcome of these tests. If a teacher has 28 students in a class; 3 LD, 4 ELL, and 17 of the students are boys. That teacher is going to have low test scores, because all students are given the same test in the same way.
It is amazing that more students don't drop out of school. All that pressure to fill in the circles in order to graduate -- GEEZ! Wake up, it is time to scratch NCLB and start over!

Don't scrap it until you find something better.
How else can you tell if a child is doing well or not? You test or assess or whatever you want to call it.
Much ado about nothing! The DIBELS assessment takes less than 10 minutes per child. Even if I did not give it, I would want to know each child's fluency and comprehension.
Assessment must take place!

Yes. I believe children are overtested in schools today. As the schoolyear goes by, more often than not, assessments are added and the laws are changed. The administration, who pass down the edict to TEST MORE, TEST ON...don't appear to solidly know HOW the tests work or effectively share the new laws. Teachers too frequently are not given clear directions or even the exact materials they need, and little is done with the results. Truly there are more important things to do with our deserving students who, overall, do their best to accomodate US and teachers absolutely have far better things to do than spend hours processing the data. I find I have less and less time to look over the MATERIAL I need to teach and confer with other teachers about our craft. Twenty years teaching and I look over past lessons I have taught to discover that my former students must have enjoyed school more than my students of today. It makes me sad to take ANY fun out of LEARNING!
I always wonder who it is who determines WHAT any or ALL of us MUST learn in this everchanging world we live in but it is clear to me, students need a purpose and reason to learn or they just simply won't. The ones who are challenged will certainly give up. It's sad.

Testing in Schools and testing, comment. 15 Feb. 2009

HI-Sometimes enough is enough. Many states are not together on what tests should be given, and it is usually the tests that give something with the programs; that are purchased. You understand how lobbying and ethics are pursued? Anyway, a child could become really good at test taking and not at understanding or real learning. Teachers are aware that they must grade the test themselves, when the costs prohibit machine scoring. Sometimes the data even arrives after the student matriculates into the next grade. Would the data be assimilated and improved upon with the student next year. A great teacher is able to assess their students’ themselves with, experienced and observant teaching. Sometimes a test is needed to point out that the teacher, or core subject teacher knows that something is really the case. If the problem is comprehension, then let’s locate a way to teach it, where it is significant for that child and not sameness for the entire class. Make sure that you know the interests of the children that you teach individually instead of pushing paperwork, testing, paperwork, testing and more. Educationally yours, Zane

Testing? I always thought testing was to give the teacher an indication of whether or not she/he had effectively communicated a concept in a manner that every student in her/his class had some grasp of it.

Then she/he could revise the lesson or teaching methods used to ensure that all of the students mastered a grasp of that concept.

Maybe I'm old fashioned and maybe I have worked in special education for far too long but I have always held the opinion that when I assess my students' ability I am more clearly testing my ability to instruct and modify the instruction that I give to address their needs.

Yes we give way to many standardized tests. The people who write those tests are not in our classrooms. They don't know how our individual students' learn. Therefor the tests clearly cannot ascertain any student's true abilities, not even those who are "very good, very high level" students.

The only way to truly assess our students is to watch what they do with what we have taught them.

Again, thanks for this useful info. I've been struggling with whether or not to test our son. My ten year-old has never been tested which I know is a disadvantage. He's home-schooled and because I don't like tests, we've never bothered to give him one. More than 75% of his brain was damaged with brain bleeding at birth and he was legally blind for seven years. We have been working with him from the beginning and he is slowly catching up, but he remains isolated and sheltered. He's less than two years behind academically and seems to be falling further behind, but everyone thinks he is smart because he is well read, traveled and quite articulate. I know we need to test him one day, but the thought of making him sit still in a chair for an hour seems cruel since we can figure out what he knows.

Unfortunately, I painfully know that the reward for doing too well on tests is that you are separated from your peers and get to take more tests. (College at 10, university at 15, Harvard doctorate, rocket scientist turned peace advocate. Ironically, the boy is bad at math and science, even though Dad also has a math/ aeronautical engineering background!)

If you could only choose two or three types of tests to introduce to the boy I've described, which ones would they be? Working with kids is incredibly hard and my hats off to those of you who can work with more than one kid at a time! I’d pay someone to teach my child, but his Dad still sees the little gray gob that he delivered while the doctors were trying to stop my contractions. He probably needs counseling.

Aloha,
My daughter is in the first grade and her language arts teacher (as well as her homeroom teacher) has been giving me very bad reports about my daughter's tests on fluency with the Dibels assessment. At this age her grade is required to read at least 40-60 words per minute by the end of the year. I was greatly pleased to see that her achievement within her classroom reading texts; she was steady at 47-52 wpm. However, when it came to the Dibels testing she was producing 11 wpm. I had mentioned to her teacher, that she shows progress within what is given to her for daily text readings, do not tell her that she is not doing well, because of the Dibels testing, my goodness she is only 5 years old!

I've asked her teacher, "So, what are you going to do to help my daughter?". Her reply, "You must do MORE practicing at home, there's no remedial classes at this grade level. You know, I have 17 years experience and I have other students that are already reading 60-90 wpm." Excuse me, about an hour or two a day is not enough, only on reading?! So, what about other children who are not the star pupils of the class,to top that off, no remedial or special classes at this grade level, then why give the assessments?!

Counselors, the VP, and principal - I still have more meetings that I intend to voice my opinion about it, as well as, remove her from that environment. It's a shame that we have the No Child left behind, that only hampers our children of wanting to learn and enjoying learning.

I look at my daughter sometimes and she looks so burnt out, I will not let that happen. If she can read a steady average of 50wpm now, then that is great - she has already met the standards for the end-of-the-year requirement (and only 1/2 year is passed). Although it may not be the Dibels testing, but she has done it with her daily class readings, and that, to me, should be the indicator that any child is progressing and learning. Also, some children are not well test-takers.

Whatever happened to encouragement and fun, especially at this age?! Since then, my daughter dislikes reading (which she's always LOVED), she refuses to volunteer in class and regressed into her shell, honestly I feel any child would put up a wall, but I've told her that all she needs to do, is keep trying her best.

We are testing too much and not on what children are interested in and thereby could excel at but by what we think they should be interested in. The children should start having dialogue in the classroom about what they'd like to be doing (probably most of it would be very intelligent play and interaction) and we should start acting on that. Homeschooling shouldn't have to be forced upon concerned parents who feel the public school system is ineffective...30% drop out rate in high school!!!! Perhaps the money allocated should be towards the students and not the ineffective curriculum and teachers.

Yes, today's system absolutely tests children too much, and some of the standardized tests on which educators are relying are pretty much worthless.
What is the SAT? Well, it is similar to the Educational Records Bureau (ERB, which I think is similar to the EOG)tests I took from third grade through Freshman year. The SAT tests the ability to order words properly for the formation of a sentence (The heat from the fire, across the room, could be felt. The heat from the fire could be felt from across the room.) as well as math that isn't the sort high school students are being taught in class. Particularly advanced math students, who are now taking calculus but are being tested on the algebra and geometry they took in middle school.
And the same thing is true at every level. Standardized tests are a pretty pointless way to determine merit of student or teacher; all they do is make kids hate school. And it is definitely true that too much time is spent on testing. Even today's Kindergartners cannot escape daily and weekly testing, and it is getting ridiculous. America's public education system just isn't doing the trick these days; it needs to be reformed, from the bottom up.
As a member of the graduating class of 2010, I know what I am talking about. Today's students are conditioned from an early age to put more emphasis on tests than anything else, until the five-hour long SAT is considered the holy grail of intellectual achievement, when it's really nothing compared to true understanding of the beauty of language or the pristine logic of mathematics or a passion for history, science, or art. Today's standardized tests are ill-designed and soulless, and that is that.