Number of standardized tests public-school students take exploded in past decade

About this series

Over three installments, reporter Sarah Bowman looks at the hidden costs of standardized testing.

Part 1 (published March 30, 2014): The consensus is clear — Beaufort County public-school students can expect to spend a minimum of 150 hours taking standardized tests during their academic careers. Educators say so much testing comes with hidden costs.

Other features in this installment:

• Taking the college boards? Advanced Placement tests? Talented-and-gifted assessments? Our interactive calculator helps you figure how many hours your child will spend taking standardized tests.
• Interactive guide: MAP. PASS. ACT. SAT. EOC. What does the alphabet soup of assessments mean? What do they measure? Our guide tells you
• Audio: Hear a psychologist talk about the toll high-stakes testing takes on kids.
• Extra: Critics say too much standardized testing detracts from a well-round education.

Part 2 (published March 31, 2014): The number of standardized tests administered to public-school students exploded in the past decade. What explains the phenomena?

Other features in this installment:

• Extra: Constant changes to required assessments make it difficult for educators to establish a baseline and measure real progress. (By the way, controversial Common Core standards means yet another test to adopt.)
• Extra: Why private schools have it better -- but not perfect -- when it comes to limiting the number of standardized tests students take.

Part 3 (publishes April 1, 2014): If so many people agree public-school students take too many standardized tests, why isn’t more being done to beat back all the assessments? Politics are one reason.

Other features in this installment:

• Video: No one says testing and assessment aren’t important. But teachers wonder if more can’t be done to strike a better balance between time spent teaching and time spent measuring.
• Extra: A closer look at South Carolina's efforts to prepare for Common Core and two potential test programs to measure progress toward those standards. It's SBAC vs. ACT.