NYC schools eye (90 Minute) math tests for kindergartners

[The Straight Story]

NYC schools eye math tests for kindergartners

By JENNIFER PELTZ – 9 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The city is asking public school principals to consider giving math tests to kindergartners, a proposal that comes amid debate over the growing use of standardized tests nationwide.

The experiment could involve tests as long as 90 minutes and change reading assessments for kindergartners through second-graders in the nation's biggest school system, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has embraced testing. The approach dismays some parents and educators who see it as mechanizing education.

The Department of Education unveiled the $400,000 program in an e-mail Monday inviting elementary school principals to participate. About 65 principals have expressed interest, and as many as 12,000 pupils may ultimately be involved, said James Liebman, the department's accountability chief.

Principals who sign on will choose from five testing systems, each with math and reading components. They include workbook-like, multiple-choice assessments estimated to take kindergartners as much as 60 to 90 minutes per section, according to the Department of Education. Other options include roughly 30-minute-long tests pupils would complete on computers and 10-minute-long sessions face to face with a teacher.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iFdXENbYRbSO9AcyQENyPe3WW12QD92R6JMG2

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Will the school risk losing federal $ from NCLB if the 5 year olds can't

name a rectangular prism or know the name of a cube?

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Or read the test to themselves or sit still for the entire 90 minutes?

[no_hypocrisy]

13. At 5, I couldn't handle "nap" for 30 minutes.

Testing for 90 minutes? I don't think so . . . .

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Yeah. LOL I was too busy eating paste to take a nap

[PA Democrat]

2. Remind of what the average attention span of a kindergartner is?

I doubt it's 90 minutes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. For instruction, a minute per year of age. For work time maybe 2-3 minutes per year of age, max

[PA Democrat]

10. Thanks. That makes sense. 90 minute tests, not so much.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Yeah, the little ones just can't sit still and focus for very long.

[nomorenomore08]

3. Bush's education policy: raise standards, then cut funding, then wring your hands about the result.

Why, it's almost as if *gasp* they were trying to prove public schools don't work! Bring on the freakin' vouchers already! :sarcasm:

[Union Thug]

4. And having spent the last 8 years developing training...

I can tell you about the value of testing...hahahaha. Err. I mean, uh, GO no child left behind! Right into the garbage heap, that is.

Kindergarteners? 90 minutes? What a F*ing joke. I can't believe that anyone would support this.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Hubby quit teaching over NCLB (among other reasons)

[jmowreader]

8. They teach math to kindergarteners? Who knew?

[KamaAina]

9. Bloomie destroyed the city's independent Board of Ed

egged on by the Daily News, which coined the term "educrats" and front-paged it frequently. He replaced it with a Department of Education that he controls. And this is the result.

Postscript: Shortly after the coup, the Board of Ed HQ at 100 Livingston St. in downtown Brooklyn was converted into pricwey yuppied condos. Karthago delenda est...

[LeftyMom]

12. Five year olds can't concentrate on ANYTHING for 90 minutes. Even fun things.

Anybody who's ever sat in the theater for a kids' movie knows this.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. H.L. Mencken had a few words about our "educational" system.

"And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps." - H.L. Mencken

God help the little tykes who prefer stuffing their Graham Crackers up their noses to reciting the times tables.