The Ohio Senate Advisory Committee on Testing has released its recommendations for changes to next year’s PARCC exams. Those are the tests tied to the state’s new Common Core standards.
The group suggests having one test per year instead of two, spending fewer days on testing and scheduling exams toward the end of the school year.
State Senator Peggy Lehner of Kettering created the committee after parents started opting their kids out of exams. And she says that movement lead her to a bigger question: Is the state testing too much?
“We do do a lot more testing in this country than most nations do and we certainly do a lot more than most of the nations that are considered the highest performing nations,” she said.
Some say this is a problem in Dayton. Lester Weller chairs the Dayton Education Council. He says the testing schedule in the district is almost constant.
“We’re fast approaching paralysis through analysis. We have more information than we could possibly handle,” he said.
The Senate committee’s suggestions for reducing testing next year will likely be considered by lawmakers during this session.
