A comprehensive testing program launched last year in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools has been abruptly shut down. Dave DeWitt reports that the tests drew a high number of parent complaints.
Dave DeWitt: 52 year-end tests were developed during the administration of superintendent Peter Gorman, for students as young as kindergarten. The idea was to gather more data on students -and then determine a baseline for future academic performance. Teachers would then be rewarded - or punished - if that student performed better or worse than expected.
Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools won the Broad Prize last year, in part, for creating a culture of using data to improve classroom instruction.
Gorman left the Charlotte Mecklenburg schools last year and now works for NewsCorp's education business. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh ended the testing program yesterday in an email to school employees. He wrote that the tests duplicated efforts the state is leading as part of the federal Race to the Top grant.