High stakes exams raise questions for parents

Parents have questions of their own about tests

By Scott Waldman

Published 8:38 pm, Saturday, March 30, 2013

Max Powers is worried that one test will keep him from graduating from fifth grade.

The 10-year-old from Albany now dreads school, worrying about the standardized exams he will take over a few days next month. That's when schoolchildren across the state in third through eighth grade will sit for their English and math standardized exams. And even though low scores won't keep them from graduating, the anxieties of many children, like Max, have parents questioning the values of the exams.

"All students are expected to participate in state assessments," he said. "State assessments are part of the core academic program."Standardized tests can serve a purpose in assessing student learning, but placing too much emphasis on them is harmful, said Heidi Andrade, an associate professor of educational psychology at UAlbany. She said educators are concerned that the tests are too detached from the curriculum to be useful and cause students to miss out on valuable learning time that is instead spent preparing for and taking standardized tests. Students who struggle in school, and who are in dire need of extra classroom time and encouragement, are hurt the most by high-stakes exams.

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