For months, CPS officials have repeated the line that tests were reduced from 25 to 10.  This is simply not the case.

Here is their “reduction” announcement, where they enumerate the tests eliminated and not eliminated.

They count eliminated tests by grade and administration.  So, for example, elimination of the fall administration of the NWEA MAP is counted as eliminating six tests because it is one test given to six different grades.  MPG is counted as five tests eliminated, spring and fall in K and 1st, just fall in 2nd.  With this accounting method, they say they got rid of 15 tests.

Then, look at the tests that are left. They count those just by test name and say there are only 10 tests now.  Pre-K through 12th grade REACH is one test. Whereas if this was a test that they had eliminated, they would have counted it as 28 tests: one test given twice a year to 14 grade levels. (And that doesn’t even count the fact that REACH might be given to a single student in many subject areas!)

Even a very generous undercounting of the remaining tests using the method of counting used for their elimination method yields about 80 some tests.  And their list doesn’t even include tests like the winter MAP that 97% of children are taking, multiple subjects of REACH as mentioned above, multiple subjects of the Common Core Quarterly Benchmarks (new test given three times a year in multiple subjects to multiple grade levels) and the many tests that the Office of Assessment doesn’t ever list because they are mandated by the Network Office or individual networks or schools.

There are almost no individual students in this district taking ten or fewer standardized tests this year.

There are just too many tests.