MaryEllen Elia's Great Idea To Shorten Testing - Put The Tests Online!

This week NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia acknowledged at least one problem with the state tests - they're too long:

Elia then proceeded to list a number of the reasons why a parent might want their child to opt out — and seemed to agree with at least one of them.

“I’ve had teachers tell me the tests are too long. I’ve had them say they don’t think they’re matched to the standards. We’ve done a lot of work in matching and looking to see that that’s done,” she said. “But I would tell you, I think that they are long.”

Today the Times-Union reports she has a solution:

To help with test fatigue, the state is rolling out a pilot program with a handful of school districts to allow kids to take the tests online, the commissioner said. This would help with certain sections on the exams like essays, and also provide quicker proficiency results.

Oh goodie - dunno about you, but I work in a school where the bandwidth restrictions can sometimes make it tough to check email, let alone have a bunch of students online taking the state tests, so I fail to see how this "solution" will work.

Also, given the mess that other states have had with online testing, given Elia's track record of incompetence in her former gig in Florida, and given NYSED's poor handling of the Common Core rollout and the Endless Testing regime in general, I'm skeptical she's competent enough to pull her "solution" off.

The more I see MaryEllen Elia in action, the more I think, "It's John King all over again - but without the charm!"

She also made some remarks about APPR that were absurd and insulting - we'll have more about that later.