National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing
This resolution is modeled on the resolution passed by more than 360 Texas school boards as of April 23, 2012.
It was written by Advancement Project; Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; FairTest; Forum for Education and Democracy; MecklenburgACTS; Deborah Meier; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; National Education Association; New York Performance Standards Consortium; Tracy Novick; Parents Across America; Parents United for Responsible Education - Chicago; Diane Ravitch; Race to Nowhere; Time Out From Testing; and United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.
We encourage organizations and individuals to publicly endorse it (see below). Organizations should modify it as needed for their local circumstances while also endorsing this national version.
http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/
...RESOLVED, that [your organization name] calls on the governor, state legislature and state education boards and administrators to reexamine public school accountability systems in this state, and to develop a system based on multiple forms of assessment 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; and
....RESOLVED, that [your organization name] calls on the U.S. Congress and Administration to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as the "No Child Left Behind Act," reduce the testing mandates, promote multiple forms of evidence of student learning and school quality in accountability, and not mandate any fixed role for the use of student test scores in evaluating educators.
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Students: They're Made Out of Meat
The coming increase in the time spent on assessment--- all in the name of teacher evaluation--- is going to be a huge problem, as I've droned on about a million times. All of these standardized assessments, taken as a whole, amount to a breaking down of the bonds between teachers and students. You can only probe people so much before they realize that they're just meat to you and that all the little measurements you're taking are being used to play out some other drama that really isn't about them.
Kids are onto this already. I work with kids every day in public schools. They're surveyed and tested and pre-tested and prepped-for-tests on a constant cycle now, and it's only going to get worse. We've dehumanized the enterprise completely.
You never run into anyone who is actually responsible for the welfare of young people arguing for more test data. That only comes from outsiders. From economics people like Mr. Hicks or dabblers like Ms. Rhee, or people who never, ever engage in a discussion about the human consequences of our data obsession, like Mr. Duncan.
http://www.schooltechconnect.com/2012/09/will-someone-go-say-something.html