A Good Idea: Let’s End Test Prep and Expand the Curriculum

In today’s New York Daily News, United Federation of Teacher President, Michael Mulgrew called for an end to test prep:

Test prep isn’t instruction. In virtually every school I have
gone into in recent years, teachers complained about instructional time
lost to prepping students for tests. Art and music fell by the wayside
years ago in most schools, but many schools were also shortchanging key
subjects like history and science – because reading and math tests were
the only ones that counted.

In case you haven’t heard, not only are there an array of major tests, such as state tests for reading and math, there are all the other tests, including periodic tests used to help teachers determine when to intervene, and then, well there’s all the prep for the tests, including time spent on how to take tests, any tests.

This what Mulgrew means, in part, when he writes about “testing obsession.”

And, that’s not all, for here is a speech by American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten:

There’s no way that our students can become the thinkers, innovators and leaders of tomorrow if they have been taught only the subjects tested. All students need rich, well-rounded curricula that ground them in areas ranging from foreign languages to phys ed, civics to the sciences, history to health, as well as literature, mathematics and the arts.