On the recordFebruary 26, 2015
I want to thank Ms. Bonamici for bringing forward this important amendment. Hardly a day goes by where I don't hear from my constituents that there is too much testing. Now, they don't often make the effort to distinguish between district testing, State testing, Federal testing and classroom testing, but clearly the Federal piece is the part that we are dealing with here today in Washington. What this amendment ensures is that we can focus on the quality of testing. We recently had a school district, Poudre School District, in and around Fort Collins, that did a review of all the different levels of testing that they have. What drives the most frustration among educators and among families and among students is testing for which they either don't understand the purpose or it doesn't have a purpose. We need to make clear not only what the purpose of testing is in public education but also have the most efficient and best route to get from here to there with regard to the quality of the tests. There are too many unnecessary and low-quality tests in public education. And at the same time we maintain our commitment to accountability and transparency, we must ensure that we take the quickest possible line from point A to point B through the highest- quality tests and the minimum amount of testing necessary to fulfill the very important public policy goals of accountability and transparency.
