The most any student might spend on state tests is 19.5 hours — or 1.8 percent of instructional time over the course of a year, says a report prepared by the district’s chief information and strategy officer, Richard Bowman. In comparison, recent national studies show students in large urban districts spend between 20 and 50 hours on testing every year.
School board President Steve Carrillo said testing has become an “explosive” issue, but “we’ve always taken tests. It’s not such a bad thing. … We can’t get rid of all testing,” he said.
He said Bowman’s presentation was to give community members a realistic assessment of the time invested in testing, especially since test scores and participation are now a major part of teacher evaluations and are key in measuring a school under the state’s A-F grading system.
In Santa Fe Public Schools, fourth- and seventh-graders are tested the most, at 15.5 hours per year. Third-graders spend 15 hours testing. Students in grades five, six, eight, nine and 10 undergo 13.5 hours of testing, while 11th-graders spend 11 hours testing. Students in grades K-2 take six hours of tests. More
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