Nikolai Vitti, the Superintendent of the Detroit Public School disclosed that The Detroit Public Schools Community District is moving ahead with plans to cut the amount of testing students have to endure by 50%.

“We have whittled it down to essentially what is required at the state level….and what is required for teacher evaluations,” Vitti said.

He also added that teachers have complained that there is too much duplication of testing, that it’s excessive and that too much of it is irrelevant and not connected to classroom learning. According to him, the district would go from administering 129 tests to administering 69. Some months — October, November and March — would have no required testing.

The district’s testing calendar for the upcoming 2017-18 school year. Was approved today by the academics subcommittee of the district’s board of education, but it is still subject to the full board’s approval.

Deborah Hunter-Harvill, the subcommittee chair, said less testing will free up more time to spend developing instructional practices.