A survey of 66 large, urban school districts shows that students spend about 2.3 percent of their class time taking standardized tests. Put another way, that’s about 20-25 hours over the school year.

Many people say that’s too much. We agree.

It’s not that testing is bad. But many times tests don’t really do anyone — students, parents or teachers — any good.

What they do tell is how well a student has mastered the material in a given course at the time the test is given. The problem comes in how the test results are used.

If a test is given during a semester, the grade can indicate if a student needs more help to understand the course material. A best-case scenario is that the student gets the needed help.

When the test given at the end of a semester, too often it pins a label on the student as being really good (an A or B), OK (the C grade), or a near or complete failure (D or F).

For C, D, or F students, if often means that the student hasn’t mastered the material in a given — and arbitrary — time.

Some students need more time and instruction to fully understand a subject. That rarely happens except in summer school. And that can be months after the original course was taken.

It would be better to give more time and teaching as soon as it is apparent the student is having difficulty.

Doing that takes more money to provide more teachers to teach more hours. Sadly, taxpayers don’t seem willing to pay for this. It’s cheaper to just shrug our shoulders and say some students are just “dumb.”

But it isn’t true. And it isn’t right.

Not all adults can master some new information in the same time as everyone else. When they can’t, they take more time, usually without any penalty.

Students shouldn’t be treated any differently.

If we want all students to succeed — and we should — let’s give them the extra time and instruction they need.

Tests may be good, but they shouldn’t define someone.