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Ossining School Board Opposes Extensive Testing

OSSINING, N.Y. – The Ossining School District is joining dozens of others around the state in demanding reform for standardized “high stakes” testing.

The Ossining School Board of Education recently passed a resolution calling for changes in  standardized testing.

The Ossining School Board of Education recently passed a resolution calling for changes in standardized testing.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Flickr User rzganoza

The Ossining Board of Education recently unanimously adopted a resolution asking state and national officials to re-examine education-policy mandates and eliminate the costs and application of extensive standardized testing requirements. The Jan. 9 resolution, similar to the “National Resolution on High–Stakes Testing” drafted by about a dozen educational leadership organizations and experts, was recommended by the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association, according to a news release.

Board Member Frank Schnecker said the evidence that extensive standardized testing is more harmful than helpful is “too overwhelming.”

“I think it’s important that we keep the eyes on the prize of what’s important in our district,” Schnecker said at the Jan. 9 meeting. “There is overwhelming evidence of the adverse effects of excessive testing.”

Schnecker later pointed to the “excessive costs” associated with implementing several of the requirements of standardized testing.

“For us to get requirements from the top that cut into our funds for what we can afford for our teachers and have to put the house system on the consideration table is egregious,” Schnecker said. “This is an important resolution and it’s important for our voices to be heard and I urge us all to move forward to support this resolution.”

Board President Bill Kress agreed.

“As the Intel Star Award winner for the most innovative science program in the nation, I think the Ossining Union Free School District knows what it takes to be successful, to inspire students of all economic and ethnic backgrounds and to promote the most effective teaching,” Kress said in a news release. “For this reason, we felt obligated to join hundreds of other school districts across the nation in calling for change in the way students, schools and teachers are assessed.”

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