Banks stated Thursday that “too much time” is spent on standardized testing and that schools should instead concentrate on “real things.”
There would be “efforts” in the area, Banks said on Thursday at an unrelated New York State Education Department conference.
‘Exams are important to me, but I don’t believe they are everything,’ said Banks. ‘And I definitely don’t think they should be playing the outsized role that they do.’
In 2020, there will be no state examinations, and last year, around 80% of third through eighth students did not take the yearly assessments. In the last month, students have been retaking the English exam, and now they are retaking the math exam as well.
Everywhere in the nation, “we have to have a distinct approach in which our children are attending school,” Banks added. “However, now that the epidemic is over, most of us are returning to our old habits,” says one survivor.
Kids’ test scores, education department officials told The Washington Post, offer instructors with a “snapshot” they may use to check in on students and determine whether or not improvements need to be made in the classroom.
After months of school cancellations and online courses, some questioned if classroom time might be better used.
“We spend months testing on various assessments,” said a middle school English teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, from District 21 in Brooklyn. “We lose massive amounts of instructional time.”
“Especially post-pandemic when there’s been so much learning loss, time is valuable to teach the kids everything that they missed out on,” she said.
This approach to schooling, which Banks revealed on Thursday, focuses on teaching students how to create bank accounts and invest in the stock market rather than theoretical knowledge.
“I want students debating the issues of the day. Real issues — the gun violence that’s going on out here, climate change — real issues,” he said. “We can’t have schools say, ‘we can’t do that,’ because we have to get ready for a standardized exam.”