It would help if the local Boards of Education and district offices would quit adding to the pig-pile! Alpine adds on the DRA reading test and the MARS math test. The DRA is 3 times a year! and we don't need a math test to back up Investigations math anymore. We've lost at least a month's worth of teaching time during my career! Yet we are supposed to be teaching them more?!

Chuck,
Do parents get the scores of their children, or are the tests for looking at district-wide scores? I put my child in private school and we get his SAT scores each year. We have found that to be helpful, but all the other stuff does nothing for us.

No, they do not. We would be better off if we only did the SAT at the end of the year and NOTHING else!

Currently in the elementary schools in the fall, we do the Iowa and DRA (reading). In January we do the DRA again, which takes several weeks to complete as it has to be done individually. In the spring we have an additional Iowa 3rd grade reading, a third DRA test, the 6th grade Direct Writing test and three UPASS tests mandated by the legislature, and the MARS math test. The Iowa and the UPASS take a full week.

I don't think parents WANT all that much testing and the time it takes away from instruction. The tests in the texts (if they are decent texts, not Investigations!) are more helpful anyway to both parents and teachers.