Are we testing kids too much?

Julie Mack

Ten-year-old Cole Curtiss is no stranger to assessment tests.

As a third-grader last year at Portage's Amberly Elementary School, here's what Cole took:

• The Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests, which involves more than eight hours of testing during two weeks in October.
• The Standardized Test for Assessment of Reading, a computer exam given four times annually to determine his grade-equivalent reading level.
• The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test, administered three times during the school year to check reading progress.
• The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, which is essentially an IQ-type exam.

This year, Cole won't take the Otis-Lennon test, but otherwise he is taking the fourth-grade versions of all the other exams.

"It's a lot," said Cole's mother, Shari Curtiss, who has mixed feelings about assessment testing.

While "it's reassuring" to see hard data on her children's academic abilities, Curtiss said, "It seems that schools live or die by the MEAP."

Portage Public Schools is not unique in its increased reliance on assessment tests, a trend that some find unsettling but others see as one of the most positive recent developments in education through high school.

Advocates say assessment tests help school districts measure the quality of their curricula and instruction. They also help pinpoint children's strengths and weaknesses and have encouraged schools to develop broader supports and strategies to deal with educational issues.

Posted by Jeff Henriques at January 7, 2009 3:39 PM
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