To the Editor:
Your article “Ohio Mandates New Tests for Charters,” (July 27, 2005) makes it seem that these new testing requirements are eminently reasonable. But at the rate Ohio is going, soon charter schools will have no time left for teaching at all—we will be too busy testing.
In addition to the state’s regular testing, which requires several weeks of preparation, our school gives extensive authentic assessments developed specifically for our curriculum three times a year.
Now the state is requiring that two additional tests be given twice each year. These tests have no relationship to the state standards because they are nationally developed and normed, and mean yet another testing format for students to learn.
Enough is enough. The sticks keep getting bigger and harder, and a carrot is never offered. How about a plan by which high-achieving schools can gain relief from more and more tests after proving for several years in a row that they are succeeding?
Catherine C. Whitehouse
Founder and Principal
The Intergenerational School
Cleveland, Ohio
