Melinda Tripp: Emphasis on testing is ruining education

Re “Don’t want your kids tested so often? Opt out” (Opinions, Jan. 14): Years ago, teachers tested their children on what they had learned at the end of the school year. This gave teachers nine months to teach the students. Testing now begins in early April. Pre-testing much earlier. So teachers must teach to the pre-test, that teaches to the test, and they have only six months to get that year of education firmly planted in their student’s minds.

Every classroom has several different modalities by which this information must be introduced. I taught sixth and fourth grades and in each class there were children working far below, below, at, and above grade level.

The Op-Ed cited children feeling anxiety about testing. This is an understatement.

Further, it cited that art, science, history and physical education have been pushed to the door. As someone who taught school when students considered it fun and hated to leave, I find all this testing abhorrent. If teachers are quizzing as they go – fixing, individually missed concepts – you can end up in June testing without making a huge production of it.

Why not teach until the end of the year and score the students over the summer break? How much better would our test scores be if our children were able to learn from September through June?

As a retired teacher, tired of the push and pull of testing that changes at whim, I stress to my daughters that their kids do not have to take state tests. As long as they are getting good grades and showing good progress, why put them through it?

Education is personal. As a parent, you can make some of these testing decisions, no matter what your particular district decides to do.

This story was originally published January 14, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Melinda Tripp: Emphasis on testing is ruining education."