Superintendent Barresi defends student testing

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma Superintendent Janet Barresi is defending the number of tests that Oklahoma students must take, which she says accounts for less than 1 percent of a student’s time during a school year.

In her weekly column on Friday, Barresi says that while she agrees teachers and students should spend less time worrying about tests, she wanted to "clear up some myths."

Barresi says fifth and eighth graders take the most tests, with five state or federal tests in math, reading, writing, science and social studies/U.S. history. But she says students in both grades will not have to take a separate writing exam, beginning in next year.

Testing in Oklahoma has become part of increasingly contentious opposition to a set of education standards known as Common Core, which includes mandatory testing.