FairTest
National Center
for Fair &
Open Testing
for immediate release, Tuesday,
June 26, 2012
HIGH-STAKES
TESTING
RESISTANCE SPREADS ACROSS NATION;
RESOLUTIONS,
BOYCOTTS,
OPT-OUTS SHOW INCREASED PUBLIC OPPOSITION
TO
FAILED
“TEST-AND-PUNISH” SCHOOL POLICIES
A
rising tide of protest is sweeping the U.S. as growing numbers
of parents,
teachers, and administrators take action against high-stakes
testing, according
to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest).
Instead of “test-and-punish”
policies, which have failed to improve academic performance or
equity, the
movement is pressing for broader forms of assessment they say
will enhance
teaching and learning. From Texas to New York and Florida to
Washington State,
reform activists seek to reduce the number of standardized
exams. They also
want to scale back the consequences attached to test scores and
use multiple
measures to evaluate students, educators, and schools.
More
than 10,000 individuals, 350 organizations and hundreds of
school boards have
now endorsed the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing. Launched by education,
civil rights and
religious groups including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and
Educational Fund,
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, Parents
Across America
and the National Education Association as well as FairTest, the
National
Resolution urges state officials to “reexamine school
accountability.” It calls
for a system “which does not require extensive standardized
testing, more
accurately reflects the broad range of student learning, and is
used to support
students and improve schools.” It also asks Congress and the
Obama
Administration to overhaul No Child Left Behind.
The
national movement was catalyzed by Texas where 545 local school
boards have
adopted a “Resolution
Concerning High
Stakes, Standardized Testing of Texas Public School Students.”
The endorsing
districts are responsible for educating 3.3 million students,
more than
two-thirds of the state’s public school enrollment.
In
Florida more than a dozen countywide school committees serving
three-quarters
of a million students endorsed the National Resolution. Early
supporters
included Broward County, the nation’s sixth biggest district,
and Palm Beach
County, the 11th largest. Then, the state association
of school
boards annual convention voted to endorse a state-specific
version. Dozens of
newspaper editorials, opinion columns, and letters to the editor
have called
for a reduction in testing and an overhaul of the state’s
assessment
system.
The
National Resolution has also won support from several school
boards in the
Tulsa, Oklahoma, area as well as Ohio and Virginia.
The
resolutions are not the only form of protest. This spring New
York parents
organized a boycott of a “field test” designed to develop future
questions.
Parents at more than five dozen schools held their children out
on days the
exams were scheduled. Boycotts also emerged in other states. In
Snohomish,
Washington, 550 parents opted their children out. Campaigns aimed at
encouraging more “opt-outs”
are underway in California and Colorado.
This summer, assessment reform
leaders intend
to use campaign season to continue their momentum. They plan to
press elected
officials and their challengers to take public positions against
test misuse
and overuse. In St. Petersburg, Florida, for example, voters
already convinced seven
of eight contenders for the local school board to oppose
high-stakes
standardized exams. By “bird-dogging” candidate forums, asking
pointing
questions, publishing opinion columns in local media, and
commenting on
political blogs, advocates expect to deliver a clear message to
those who
ultimately make assessment policy: “Enough is enough!”
- - 3 0
- -
- The National Resolution on
High-Stakes
Testing is online at
http://timeoutfromtesting.org/
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