Too Much Questionable Testing?

At this time of year, I hear teachers complaining about the time it takes for testing. “Thank heavens we are finished with the testing. Now, I can get back to teaching.” “We were testing last week, so I had time to cut out puzzle pieces.”

In June, parents in New York called for more teaching, less testing. Some say that some test questions are of poor quality and some tests contain major errors. Bedford Central District in Westchester County, New York voted in a resolution against the overuse and misuse of standardized testing.  Are we becoming dependent upon assessing our students with products developed by outside agencies and are the demands of preparing for and taking tests subtracting too much time from teaching hours? Are we sending teachers the message that they do not know how to evaluate their students? Don’t we hear often that test results are not used or, at least, not used effectively? We learned that Common_Core tests will take up to ten hours; districts giving them will have twenty days to administer them.