10 ways to oppose high-stakes standardized tests [View all]

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By Valerie Strauss

I’ve written several times in recent months about a growing movement by parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, students and others to protest the use of standardized tests for high-stakes purposes.

Here’s a list of 10 things that people can do to counter the damaging effects of high-stakes standardized testing. It was written by Ruth Silverberg, an associate professor in the Education Department of the College of Staten Island CUNY.

The list of 10:

1. Don’t brag if you or your children got high scores on any high stakes tests, including the SAT or ACT. This can help dispel the faulty idea that standardized tests are a valid measure of learning.

2. Ask for evidence that learning is occurring in your neighborhood school such as student work products, presentations, community service. Don’t use the “School Report Card” to assess learning in the school.

3. If you have a student in your home or extended family, reinforce the student’s collaboration with peers on schoolwork, and share this with his/her teacher. This will help dispel the idea that competition fosters learning better than collaboration.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/10-ways-to-oppose-high-stakes-standardized-tests/2012/06/13/gJQARRODbV_blog.html