Brown to call for less testing in schools
By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee
Gov. Jerry Brown will call for less statewide testing and expanding classroom focus beyond math and English in his annual State of the State address tomorrow, according to his top education adviser.
Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board of Education, told hundreds of school finance officials today that Brown will seek to reduce student testing and push districts to focus on a broader array of subject areas. She spoke at an annual workshop produced by School Services of California, which advises districts on how to budget for the next 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.”
It’s about time! Teachers are having to spend way too much time teaching to the tests. This will give them more time to teach beyond these two subjects.