On October 24th 2015, President Obama announced his new education proposal; the Testing Action Plan. He feels students nowadays are taking a plethora of meaningless tests.
Obama said, “I hear from parents who rightly worry about too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning both for them and for the students. I want to fix that.”
According to the Council of Great City Schools students will take 112 standardized test between preschool and high school graduation. A gruesome 25 hours a year is spent on test taking. The majority of these tests are redundant and unnecessary to the curriculum. Npr.org states that the Department of Education plans on implementing a two percent cap on the time students spend on taking required, statewide tests. In simpler terms they are going to reduce time spent on tests by two percent.
Veteran teacher Mrs. Hedstrom has experienced many course changes over the years.
“State requirements change all the time. The curriculum we teach just has to meet the state standards,” said Hedstrom.
Nebraska follows its own education path and set up the state testing program called Nebraska State Accountability Assessments or NeSA. This was created in 2009 from paper test to online testing. The Nebraska Department of Education states that in high school a student must be tested at least once. With the two percent cap Nebraska will have to review their standards.
“I think the NeSA testing will stay but if the law passes we will have look at the time we are spending with other programs like districting writing and so on,” said Hedstrom.
One question rising up for high school students is; why they are always stressed and could the culprit be over testing? Junior Grace Clawson says she doesn’t feel stressed with the amount of tests she takes.
“I feel fine. It’s just the matter of studying for all my tests,” said Clawson.
” The number of tests given in school is determined by the subject. In honors there are less tests; but they are more heavily weighed and in regulars the tests don’t go into as much depth,” Clawson added.
The exact changes of the curriculum are unclear. Mrs. McConaughey figured out the math to determine how many days will be affected. “I found out that the two percent cap will cut out 2-3 days of test taking,” Said McConaughey.
Given the information, all that can be determined is; Hastings High’s education system might be under slight changes that lean towards good.
