State superintendent: Teachers need less testing, more time to teach

State School Superintendent Richard Woods made several stops at Clarke County schools recently, including Athens' Cedar Shoals High School. While there, he got a first-hand look at the work done by the Professional School District Partnership and its professor-in-residence, Sonia Janis. The partnership is an outreach effort by the College of Education, and brings teacher candidates into schools so they can work alongside experienced teachers before they graduate.

During his visit, Woods noted the barrage of tests and evaluations teachers now have to go through. "Right now I think we are giving them shackles and anchors," he told a small group of teachers and administrators at Shoals High School. "I think you have been given too much at one time, and you are overloaded."