As part of his new initiative to make standardized testing more effective in part by reducing it, President Barack Obama has reached out to parents and educators to ask them this question:

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

Our president knows the answer wouldn’t include more standardized testing- and agreed he wouldn’t want that for his girls, either, potentially marking a changing tide in how testing is carried out in America’s classrooms.

“..when I look back on the great teachers who shaped my life, what I remember isn’t the way they prepared me to take a standardized test. What I remember is the way they taught me to believe in myself. To be curious about the world. To take charge of my own learning so that I could reach my full potential. They inspired me to open up a window into parts of the world I’d never thought of before,” Obama said.

As a result, Obama has asked the Department of Education to work to improve standardized testing by focusing on making three principles happen:

Tests and supplementary instruction should be high quality to ensure everyone is on track

Classroom time spent on testing should be limited to ensure good teaching can happen

Classroom work and others factors should supplement test scores to do away with high-stakes testing.

"We’re going to work with states, school districts, teachers, and parents to make sure the principles I outlined are reflected in classrooms across our country – and together, we’re going to help prepare our kids for a lifetime of success,” Obama said.

The White House is now asking parents, teachers and concerned Americans to share their thoughts on how to make testing smarter. Start sharing yours here.

Education World wants to know: Are you hopeful that the Obama administration’s proposed commitment to fixing standardized testing will help fix America’s classrooms? Users with access: take our poll.

Read Obama’s full post here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/27/2015