Public School Standardized Testing To Be Shortened
Last month, Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) announced a move to decrease the amount of time elementary and junior high students spend taking standardized tests in public schools across the state.
The Pennsylvania System for School Assessment (PSSA) Exams have long drawn criticism from a number of groups, from educators to parents and even students themselves. Complaints have included not only the length of time spent taking the test, but the amount of instruction time sacrificed in order to teach students specifically how to take and what will be on the standardized assessments.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education plans to reduce one math section and one English section on the PSSAs, which are taken by students in third through eighth grades. The reduction should cut down by 20-25% the amount of time to finish the test, with the variation due to age and length of the original test, saving on average 93 minutes of test time, according to the education department.