Tester continues to urge Congress to reduce standardized testing burden

Following Senator’s lead, Administration calls for fewer standardized tests

(U.S. Senate) – As a growing chorus of students, parents, educators, and now the President call for an end to the current federal testing regime, Senator Jon Tester is continuing to urge Congress to reduce the amount of time students spend on standardized tests.

Tester this spring introduced a bill to remove the annual testing requirement under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and replace it with fewer tests. A recent report found that students in some schools will take more than 100 mandatory tests between preschool and high school graduation.

The Senator is again pushing his colleagues to reduce the standardized testing burden as the House and Senate replace NCLB and craft a compromise bill to overhaul K-12 education.

“As a parent and a grandparent, and a former teacher and school board member, I am deeply concerned that standardized tests eat up far too much classroom time and too many school resources,” Tester wrote. “There is still an opportunity to address the chronic over-testing that is paying few dividends for our students or our economic future.”

The President last week joined the call for a reduction of the current testing burden.

Tester’s letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is available online HERE.