Comments about ‘Overhaul of school testing system discussed, given preliminary approval’

How exactly does a different kind of test influence student achievement? It may be a better way to measure achievement, but it really won't influence that achievement unless the results are useful in focusing the instruction students receive after taking the test.

Seeing as how CRTs currently overload the state's servers, changing to a testing system that requires constant testing seems ludicrous. We will have to sacrifice instruction time, the ability to use computers for anything but testing, and a great deal of money just to get this started. Throw in the lack of reliability and comparability that these sort of tests since each child has a different test and one can see why the Department of Education had until this year said no to repeated efforts to try it.

The only benefits I can see using CAT is with the use as a time filler for poorly trained teachers and forcing educators into teaching curriculum in a formulated sequenced way (this helps highly transient student populations). Neither benefit is worth the cost.

I agree, Mr. Jarvis. The truth is, good teachers can already tell what their students know and can do. The push for constant testing diverts money from the classroom to the pockets of the testing companies. What a waste!