Henderson: DCPS must lessen 'hard-core testing environment'

Acting D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson wants to scale back the “hard-core testing environment” in the city’s public schools, saying it has made students and school staff “stressed-out and crazy.” “I think we’ve swung the pendulum from one extreme to the other, right — from absolutely no accountability to uber-accountability that has people stressed-out and crazy and whatnot,” Henderson said. “I think we’re now finding our way — or we have to find our way — back to some happy medium.”

The city’s inspector general is investigating allegations that cheating — whether it be at the hands of students, teachers or principals — occurred on the 2009 D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the District’s standardized reading and math exams.