Metro

NY kids to be put to the ‘tests’

Changes to the state’s testing program could leave public- schools kids in grades 3 through to 11 taking as many as nine exams per year in English and math — more than four times the current number, officials said yesterday.

The potential jump comes from New York’s participation in a federally funded consortium of 25 states that’s seeking to make exams computer-based, more challenging and administered several times per year.

The latest consortium plan calls for students to be tested as many as four times annually in math and five times a year in reading, starting in 2014.

Currently students take only one exam in each subject, and only in grades 3 through 8.

Older students must pass just one Regents exam in math and one in English during their four years of high school in order to graduate.

Concerns about the amount and cost of testing have already prompted the consortium, known as The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, to mark four of the nine exams as “optional.”

The state Board of Regents will have approval over the final plan before it’s adopted here.

Recent changes to the state’s teacher-evaluation framework are also going to require students to be tested — perhaps several times a year — in other subjects, including science and social studies.

The testing expansion is necessary because student performance on state tests and other assessments must count toward 40 percent of teacher ratings starting next year under state law.

“It’s clearly going to be a lot more testing,” said education advocate Leonie Haimson, director of Class Size Matters.

“[Education officials’] answer to everything is just more tests.”