Shorter doesn’t equal better with assessment

Tests get a bad rap. Pick any education news source and you’re never more than a few pages or clicks away from calls to “End high-stakes testing,” “Stop standardized testing,” or “Save kids from over-testing.” But the issue is not so black and white.

A common complaint with assessments is time: students spend too much time taking tests instead of receiving classroom instruction. According to a study by the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University, teachers estimate students spend 10 school days taking district-mandated assessments and another nine days taking state tests each year. While outliers may skew the mean slightly high, it’s still no wonder why 81% of teachers believe their students spend too much time on tests.

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