The state's report card on the performance of Harford schools is getting longer, with the addition of two new tests given to pre-secondary students last spring, and some educators are raising the question whether children are being over-tested.
"There was a great concern about that last year. There was an inordinate amount of time set aside for testing," said Christine Haggett, president of the Harford County teachers union. "We hope that won't be the case again."
But Harford school administrators say they are bound to follow the state requirements for testing students.
"We have to test (pupils) according to the state requirements. We don't have any say," explained Albert Seymour, a schools spokesman.
School board member Ronald Eaton said he has heard parent complaints about the testing and that Harford would "try to make adjustments" to make the process less taxing on pupils and teachers.
Two changes will be in place when Harford students take the new tests again this spring.
Only 250 Harford third-graders will take the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills this month. Nearly 2,500 third-graders took it last year. These multiple-choice tests measure student skills in reading, language and mathematics and compare results to national averages.
In another change, students will spend only five days taking the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests this May, down from the nine days used last year.
The Maryland-designed tests in reading, writing, language usage and math require written application of skills and gauge performance against pre-set standards rather than against average scores of all test-takers.
Harford students generally performed betterthan statewide averages on the performance assessment tests, given to all third-, fifth- and eighth-graders in Maryland last May.
The results of those tests were released March 26 and revised last week as a result of new calculations by the Maryland State Department of Education.
The revised figures show that Harford students did slightly better, compared to their peers in the state, than originally reported.
The major change for Harford was that the percentage of eighth-graders placing in the two highest proficiency levels was 10.8, exceeding the state average of 9.5 percent. The original figures showedeighth-graders falling below the state average.
