In order to deal with the demand to better vet teachers, New York City schools are planning on putting as much as a quarter of the $256 million in federal grant money toward creating sixteen new standardized exams for students. Only this time, the results will be used to grade their instructors. This means elementary-school students would likely take at least one or two additional tests per year, starting in the third grade. And high-school students could take up to eight additional tests per year. That’s on top of the state English, math, and Regent exams. Besides the failure of similar programs in other states like Kentucky and the fact that it further incentivizes teachers to practice skills for the test rather than broader learning, has no one considered the fact that frustrated students whose educational experience has become one extended test-prep session might want to skew the results?
