GUILDERLAND — The superintendent here strongly criticized new testing requirements in his annual State of the District Address, delivered to the school board Tuesday night.
"Tests are basic but limited," said Superintendent Gregory Aidala. "A test cannot measure a child’s confidence, creativity, or common sense."

New York State formerly required fourth- and eighth-graders to be tested in English and math. Starting this school year, all students in third through eighth grade will be tested.
"I wish that education reform could be accomplished in the easy, simplistic way that legislators presume: We teach; students learn; we test; we declare success," said Aidala. "The problem is that such a mindset ignores the complexities involved in teaching and learning as well as children's developmental needs."

Aidala said that the new testing regimen fueled by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation means students will loose valuable instructional time and teachers, grading exams, will lose classroom time.
Aidala referred to the "redundancy of testing," and said that, without the additional tests, teachers already know how well their students are doing and which students need more help.

The testing will cost Guilderland an estimated $100,000 a year for at least the next two years, said Aidala. The 12 tests will take 28 sessions to administer, he said, and will cause stress for students and teachers.

Aidala said his criticism was not because of an anti-testing philosophy but because of the time lost from teacher-student interaction and because of the large expense not offset with added funding.
"As a superintendent, I’m confident our students will do well...I continue to ask myself, ‘How much is enough"’" said Aidala.
In last year’s address, Aidala had sounded a similar warning on the dangers of high-stakes testing. Although it may satisfy the "political agenda in our country," he said then, the obvious trap is teachers will match their teaching more and more to the test. Other skills, not measurable in tests, such as problem-solving, creative thinking, and collaborative work, are also important, he said.

Staying the course

Aidala structured his speech this year along the lines of Charles Dickens’s Victorian classic, A Christmas Carol, where a miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future, which open his mind and heart, changing him into a generous person.
While Aidala reviewed a "record of strengths and successes" over the past year, present issues, and future challenges, his message was one of staying the course and building on past practices, rather than a Scrooge-like shift of philosophy.

One new initiative mentioned by Aidala was the announcement that Kermit Hall, the president of the University at Albany, will visit Guilderland on Jan. 18 to explore a school-university partnership.

Another looming matter of interest is the possibility of mandatory full-day kindergarten throughout the state, said Aidala. Guilderland currently offers a half-day kindergarten program.

Past

Reviewing the past 12 months, Aidala highlighted:

— The settlement with Crossgates Mall, ending a dozen years of litigation and resulting in no payment of back taxes;

—The $20 million renovation and expansion of the middle school;

— New administrators, including new principals for Altamont Elementary School, the middle school, and the high school as well as a new administrator for human resources;
— Program highlights including maintaining "favorable class size" at the elementary schools, curriculum mapping at the middle school, and offering a wide variety of courses and co-curricular activities at the high school;

— Town-wide property revaluation which inspired questions, confusion, and concerns; and

— Communication with the district’s constituents through e-mails from the superintendent, notes and calls to parents, a district newsletter, a cable network, local newspapers, and the district’s website.
Aidala quoted from Jim Collins: "Leadership at any level is about vision. Leadership is also about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the facts are confronted."
Aidala said, "Sometimes the news hasn’t always been good but we have never shied away from providing information to our community."

Present

In summarizing current issues, Aidala went over:

— The slight decline in enrollment — down 1.7 percent to 5,551 students — expected to continue over the next five years;

— The changing staff among the district’s 1,100 employees, including 31 new teachers this fall;

— The second year of a new teacher-evaluation model; a parallel revision for evaluating supervisors and administrators is expected to be completed this year;

— Education beyond the classroom, including activities in art, music, the theater, and athletics;

— An energy-management program designed to save money by changing habits;

— Improvements in school security; and

— New testing requirements.

Future

Looking to the future, Aidala discussed:

— Instructional priorities, including focusing on students to ensure their success, developing a wellness policy, continuing to work on bullying prevention, and examining the teaching of foreign language at the elementary schools;

— Dealing with government mandates; and

— Budget issues, including rising costs for health insurance and pension; increasing fuel and utility costs; and the need to identify areas of change to save money as with energy management or transportation efficiency.
"Our constituents recognize the importance of access to quality education services for our children," said Aidala, "but, at the same time, we are all dealing with higher fuel costs...government expense for Hurricane Katrina and to support the war in Iraq which are beginning to drain our economy and add to our national debt, and rising property taxes as built-in costs continue to escalate beyond the rate of inflation."
He went on, "With declining resources, it is imperative that we maintain the public's trust and confidence that we are doing the best we can to balance program needs and examine difficult issues by challenging accepted norms and the bottom-line costs which are needed to support our schools financially."
Aidala said he remains optimistic. "We know education is at the heart of the American dream," he said, echoing a comment he made in last year’s address. He also listed goals similar to those outlined last year.
Aidala concluded with a quotation from Lyndon Baines Johnson, president in the 1960’s: "At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems — the answer for all the problems of the world — comes to a single word. That word is education."
The school board applauded Aidala at the close of his speech and its president, Gene Danese, thanked him for the "positive report on the state of the district."