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The Associated Press

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NEW YORK - The city is asking public school principals to consider giving math tests to kindergartners, a proposal that comes amid debate over the growing use of standardized tests countrywide.

The experiment could involve tests as long as 90 minutes and change reading assessments for kindergartners through second-graders in the country's biggest school system, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has embraced testing.

The approach dismays some parents and educators who see it as mechanizing education.

The Department of Education unveiled the $400,000 program in an e-mail Monday inviting elementary school principals to participate. About 65 principals have expressed interest, and as many as 12,000 pupils may ultimately be involved, said James Liebman, the department's accountability chief.

Principals who sign on will choose from five testing systems, each with math and reading components. They include workbook-like, multiple-choice assessments estimated to take kindergartners as much as 60-90 minutes per section, according to the Department of Education. Other options include roughly 30-minute-long tests pupils would complete on computers and 10-minute-long sessions face to face with a teacher.

Children in kindergarten through second grade are currently assessed only in literacy, through one-on-one, 20-to-30-minute-long interactions in which teachers write down their multiple-choice answers, Liebman said.

The scores on the new tests would not affect pupils' grades or teachers' evaluations but would yield a better picture of children's progress than current tests do, he said.