--- title: Sen Alexander: Obama Should 'Stop and Think' on Over-Testing description: Teachers know better than Washington how to assess their students’ progress canonical: https://time.com/4086930/lamar-alexander-testing/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-26T15:58:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:21.073Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Sen. Lamar Alexander: Obama Must 'Stop and Think' on Testing og:description: Teachers know better than Washington how to assess their students’ progress og:url: https://time.com/4086930/lamar-alexander-testing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f24a27e57d7b921/698869ccbc6cfca3a63da127/lamar-alexander.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4605 og:image:height: 2590 og:image:alt: Lamar Alexander og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sen. Lamar Alexander: Obama Must 'Stop and Think' on Testing twitter:description: Teachers know better than Washington how to assess their students’ progress twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f24a27e57d7b921/698869ccbc6cfca3a63da127/lamar-alexander.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Lamar Alexander: Obama Should 'Stop and Think' On Over-Testing Problem > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=edac0b0d-1a5c-41c8-aec4-768e2db74790&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Obama On Standardized Testing [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama On Standardized Testing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SjAr12A0.m3u8) (3:04)  _Published 2015-10-24. President Obama On Standardized Testing_ by [Sen. Lamar Alexander](https://time.com/author/sen-lamar-alexander/) ## Sen. Lamar Alexander Oct 26, 2015 3:58 PM UTC  Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 21, 2015. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 21, 2015. Susan Walsh—AP by [Sen. Lamar Alexander](https://time.com/author/sen-lamar-alexander/) ## Sen. Lamar Alexander Oct 26, 2015 3:58 PM UTC Over the weekend President Barack Obama announced that all [100,000 public schools across the nation](http://time.com/4086062/obama-standardized-testing-cap-schools-education/) should limit testing to 2% of a student’s time in the classroom. It’s a recommendation, not a requirement, and it comes in response to a nationwide backlash from teachers, students, and parents who are sick of over-testing. The president is right about students taking too many tests. But I hope he will stop and think before trying to cure over-testing by telling teachers exactly how much time to spend on testing or what the tests should be. Classroom teachers know better than Washington how to assess their students’ progress. They also know that the real reason we have too many tests is that there are too many federal mandates that put high stakes on student test results, and that one more Washington decree—even if it is only a recommendation for now—is not the way to solve the problem of too many federal mandates. Instead, the best way to fix over-testing is to get rid of the federal mandates that are causing the problem. That’s precisely what the United States Senate did when it passed by an overwhelming [bipartisan majority](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/us/politics/senate-education-revamp-no-child-left-behind.html?%5Fr=0), 81-17, legislation to fix No Child Left Behind and give more flexibility to states and classroom teachers to decide which tests will decide what kind of progress students are making. No Child Left Behind, a federal law enacted in 2001, requires students to take 17 standardized tests over the course of their K-12 education. It uses those tests to decide whether schools and teachers are succeeding or failing. In the Senate’s work to fix No Child Left Behind, no issue stirred as much controversy as these high-stakes tests. At first, I was among those who thought the way to fix over-testing might be to get rid of the 17 tests. But the more we studied the problem, the more the issue seemed not to be the 17 federal tests but the federally designed system of rewarding or punishing schools and teachers that was attached to the tests. A third grader, for example, is required to take only one test in math and one in reading. But here is the problem: the results of these tests count so much in the federally mandated “accountability system” that states and school districts are giving students dozens of additional tests to prepare for the federal tests. A new survey says students in big-city schools will take, on average, [112 mandatory standardized tests](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-says-standardized-testing-is-overwhelming-nations-public-schools/2015/10/24/8a22092c-79ae-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc%5Fstory.html) between prekindergarten and high school graduation—that’s eight tests a year. One Florida study showed that a Fort Myers, Fla., school district gave [more than 160](http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/09/02/florida-school-district-retracts-historic-testing-opt-out-decision) to its students. Only 17 of those are federally required. So the Senate decided to keep the federally required 17 tests—that’s two annual tests in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school, as well as science tests given three times between grades 3 and 12. We also kept the practice of reporting results publicly so parents and teachers know how their children are performing. These results are “disaggregated,” so we know how students are doing based on their gender, ethnicity, or disability. To discourage over-testing, we restored to states and classroom teachers the responsibility for deciding how to use these federal test scores to measure achievement. Our bill ends the high-stakes, Washington-designed, test-based accountability system that has caused the explosion of tests in our local schools. It reverses the trend toward a national school board. I am glad to see the president’s focus on over-testing. But let’s not make the same mistake twice by decreeing from Washington exactly how much time to spend on tests or what the tests should be. States and 3 million teachers in 100,000 public schools are in the best position to know what to do about over-testing. Both the Senate and House of Representatives have passed similar bills to fix No Child Left Behind and to reduce the federal mandates that are the real cause of over-testing. The best way to have fewer and better tests in America’s classrooms is for Congress to finish its work and the president to sign our legislation before the end of the year. _Alexander is chairman of the Senate education committee, a former governor of Tennessee and a former U.S. education secretary._ ## Transcript Hi, everybody. I've got a pop quiz for parents and teachers across the country. If our kids had more free time at school, what would you want them to do with it? A ) Learn to play a musical instrument? B ) Study a new language? C ) Learn how to code HTML? Or D ). Take more standardized tests. If you're like most of the parents and teachers I hear from, you didn't choose D. I wouldn't either. When I look back on the great teachers who shaped my life, what I remember isn't the way they prepared me to take a standardized test. What I remember is the way they taught me to believe in myself. To be curious about the world, to take charge of my own learning so that I could reach my full potential, to inspire me, to open up a window into parts of the world that I'd never thought of before. That's what good teaching is. That's what a good education is Today as a parent I want to know how my child is doing in school and I want my teacher to know that too. And as president, I want to hold all of us accountable for making sure every child everywhere is learning what he or she needs to be successful and that's why I believe that in moderation, smart strategic tests can help us measure our kid's progress in school. It can help them. Learn. But I also hear from parents who, rightly, worry about too much testing. And from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them and for the students. I wanna fix that. That's why I've asked the department of education to work aggressively with states and school districts to make sure that any tests we use in our classroom meet three basic principles. First, our kids should only take tests that are worth taking. Tests that are high quality, aimed at good instruction and make sure everybody is on track. Second, tests shouldn't occupy too much classroom time or crowd out teaching and learning. Tests should enhance teaching and learning. And third, tests should be just one source of information used alongside classroom work and surveys and other factors to give us An all- around look at how our students and our schools are doing. Three basic principles. Because learning is about so much more than just filling in the right bubble. So we're gonna work with states, school districts, teachers, and parents, to make sure that we're not obsessing about testing. that the principles that I've just outlined are reflected in classrooms throughout the country. To make sure that our kids are enjoying learning. That our teachers are able to operate with creativity. To make sure we are preparing our kids For a lifetime of success. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4086930/lamar-alexander-testing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4086930/lamar-alexander-testing/"},"headline":"Sen. 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