Too Much Testing?

I'm beginning to wonder if we are testing our students too much.  Where is the fine line between getting the information needed and doing too much.

Today, our school looked at data to determine the school's priority of what we want to focus on first.  We looked at attendance, reading scores, math scores, behavior, and so much more.  Each bit of data providing a bit more.

Due to a lack of time, I never got a chance to look at the reading scores but I did get a chance to check the math results for grades 3 to 12th.  We looked at the once a year state test which showed only 4 students out of over 250 students were on grade level.  We also looked at the MAP results for this year which showed only 3 students at almost grade level. 

I'm told that we should also have our high school students take the AIMS math test because it will give us additional information while acting as a universal screener.

Ok so lets look at this.  They take the state test once a year and every spring all students classified as ELL must take another test to determine their English language proficiency.  The MAP test is taken three times a year so we can check their rate of growth but the data provided does not give me quite enough information.  For instance, it might say they need to work on solving equations but it doesn't tell me what part of solving equations are they struggling with.

Although the AIMS test is for students up to 8th grade, most of my students according to the MAPS are well below grade level.  They appear to be performing at a 4th to 6th grade level.  From what one of the elementary teachers said, the AIMS has two components in the math test.  Students can be checked for calculation and for application.  They say it will provide me with better information on what they struggle with but this would be another test they'd end up taking three times a year.

Each of the tests take two to three days to administer which means I'm loosing student contact time.  I am unable to work with students who desperately need the class time.  So if students are testing for about 30 days a year. I admit it is only for one test per day but still 30 days a year means they loose class time for 1/6th of the school days.

Furthermore, if the students do not take the testing seriously, the results may not be a true representation of their abilities especially when they rush through it and take less than 15 minutes to complete a test that should take much longer. 

In addition, most of the teachers at our school are not given enough time to sit there and analyze all the test results to see if we can find enough information to know what we need to scaffold our students in.  Its not enough to have the data from these tests, time needs to be allocated to examine results to plan a path of instruction. 

Data is worthless without the ability to use it to plan the next steps. I'd love to hear from others out there who face the same problems.