Obama: Too Many School Tests, Cap Tests At 2 Percent — Take The White House Quiz On Facebook Shared 7,000 Times [Video]


President Obama has noted that there are too many tests in school, and as such, Obama has put forth a test on Facebook to give folks about too many tests and too much test-taking in school. A new quiz on the Facebook page of The White House is pretty popular, especially since the “Historical Place” already enjoys 4,774,107 likes. The quiz itself is accompanied by a video with President Obama asking viewers what other things children could be doing if their time were freed up from taking too many unnecessary tests.

“Our kids should only take tests that are worth taking.”

Tests should enhance teaching and learning and represent only one facet of a measure of how schools are doing, said the president. Learning means much more than filling out bubbles, Obama related in the now-viral video. President Obama wants to ensure that teachers aren’t bogged down by creating tests that don’t enhance the learning process. He also wants to make sure that kids aren’t solely focused on tests as the ultimate measure of learning and knowledge growth. The president waxed nostalgic back to his school days, when the focus wasn’t solely on taking tests, but included a whole measure of means of gaining insight and information. President Obama’s theory is likely music to the ears of students who don’t do well on tests, and suffer from test-taking anxiety and performance issues.

“If our kids had more free time at school, what would you want them to do with it?

A) Learn to play a musical instrument?
B) Study a new language?
C) Learn how to code HTML?
D) Take more standardized tests?

Take the quiz, then watch President Obama’s message about smarter ways to measure our kids’ progress in school.”

The Facebook post on the White House’s page has gained 15,588 likes — plus 4,079 comments and 7,029 shares within the 19 hours since the post was published on Facebook.

It’s a message that is resonating with those who feel that Obama is right on target with test-taking in schools going too far. Likely lots of students will also agree with the Commander-in-Chief, in believing that there are more effective ways that students in the United States can remain competitive educationally with the rest of the world without overdoing test-taking.

As reported by CNN, President Obama is challenging the Department of Education to come up with new ways to create standards that are just as effective for learning that don’t include inundating students with too many tests. Obama will release more details about the plan to combat too many tests in January, 2016.

The new testing guidelines to be announced by President Obama tackles one of the most controversial issues in education. On Saturday, Obama stated that standardized tests should take up only 2 percent of classroom time. The president admitted that the government is partially to blame for the rampant amount of tests that have been forced upon educators and students. As it currently stands, approximately 20 to 25 hours per school year is taken up by preparing for and taking standardized tests, with potentially a lot more time devoted to test-taking. After the study released Saturday by the Council of the Great City Schools determined that figure by examining the 66 biggest school districts in the United States, calls for change and reform in test-taking were also announced on the same day.

[Photo by Mark Wilson / Getty Images]

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