Over Testing? An exaggeration?

Read this op-ed for its larger message, which I think is important, but this paragraph just jumped out at me:

He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

How can that be? Fully 60% of a school year is given over to testing? The hyperbolic exaggeration notwithstanding, how can any journalist (even an op-ed writer) not verify that fact.