They also credited intensive reading programs like Success for All, and defended the emphasis on testing.
Finally, the extreme emphasis on testing begs a larger question: What is the purpose of education?
Indeed, Professor Hakuta said that given a new emphasis on testing statewide, some districts are clearly teaching to the exams.
Dr. Crocco said yesterday that she agreed that the state was placing too much emphasis on testing.
Some critics say the Bush program's emphasis on testing fuels an overload of tests, wastes instructional time and stifles broader learning.
Over in the Fordham section of the Bronx that same day, Shelley Matthews said she was worried about school financing and the emphasis on testing.
The primary reason it became marginalized, Ms. Eagly, said, is that while most disciplines in psychology began putting greater emphasis on testing the validity of their approaches scientifically, "psychoanalysts haven't developed the same evidence-based grounding".
New York's small alternative schools, which have been successful in helping low-performing students, should be strengthened; instead, their very existence is being jeopardized by the emphasis on testing.
Sung in the mood of an upbeat gospel, the song bursts with praise of President Bush and of a federal law that is raising hackles in some parts of the country that worry about a too-tough emphasis on testing.
He says of current trends in education: "I understand the need to hold teachers and schools accountable, but I wish there wasn't such emphasis on testing these days and that teachers could be more creative.
