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Hernando County Schools reduce testing for students

Posted at 7:34 PM, Oct 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-05 19:34:09-04

Hernando county schools announced they are cutting the amount of tests given to students.

"We believe that we’re over-testing our students." said Dr. Lori Romano, Superintendent of Hernando County Schools. 

Constant complaints about over-testing led state legislators to decide that several state required tests would now be the school district's decision.

Romano says that teachers and students should be given back the time to teach and learn instead of constant testing. "We had kindergartens who were taking seven end of course exams, it was a lot of testing and it was too much." 

So the school district announced that they’re removing several tests from the requirements including some end of year exams.

Hernando Schools has made the following changes for 2017-2018:

  • Eliminated progress monitoring in writing for K-2 and reduced writing assessments from 4 tests to 2 for grades 3-10.
  • Eliminated FAIR testing for reading in grades 6-12.
  • Eliminated additional progress monitoring testing for grades 6-12. Instead, teachers will use 9 weeks exam data to capture student learning.
  • Eliminated progress monitoring for Science in grades 3 and 4.

In addition, the following end-of-year (or end-of-course) tests were also eliminated:

  • K-5 Social Studies
  • K-4 Science
  • K-5 Specials
  • Algebra II EOC

"There’s still way too much testing," said Pam Everett who removed her kids from public school because of the unnecessary testing. 

Everett said, "I think we’re moving in the right direction. We’re not there yet but it is a step forward." 

Sherry Dame's daughter just graduated in Hernando County. She said, "I think the teachers are amazing. I think they need to leave it up to the teachers to determine what the kids need."