A Struggle to Handle 'No Child' Testing Mandates

"States are struggling to meet testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind law. The limited number of companies that provide testing services has made it hard to service the new demand generated by the federal law."

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Given the high-stakes nature of NCLB testing requirements it has been estimated by a number of researchers that over 50 instructional days (out of generally 180 school days) are devoted to testing or test preparation; nearly 30% of the school year devoted to unproductive instruction.

In Chicago, where I live, schools spend hours worrying about a written "extended response" on the ISAT test. Teachers spend hour upon hour instructing students how to write an "extended response." What they ought to be doing is teaching children how to think through writing--the "extended response" will then take care of itself.

So much is lost when political solutions to non-political problems get in the way of what professionals in a field know they should do but can't.

NPR : A Struggle to Handle 'No Child' Testing Mandates:

Zoundry

The Testing Trap: How State Writing Assessments Control Learning (Language and Literacy Series (Teachers College Pr))

Technorati : NCLB, assessment, education, policy, politics, power