Minneapolis Schools Suspend High-Stakes Kindergarten Testing

By Deborah L. Cohen

Kindergartners will not have to face a familiar rite of passage in Minneapolis this spring: a 20-minute test that could determine whether they enter the 1st grade.

The so-called "benchmark test'' was among the first and most widely publicized districtwide efforts to assess a child's readiness for the 1st grade.

Launched in 1984 by the former superintendent of the Minneapolis schools, Richard Green, the test was part of a strategy to reduce the incidence of "social promotion'' and to hold schools accountable for results by testing students' "minimum competencies''...