I'm proud to be a member of Change the Stakes, a partner in this national alliance.
Posted in facebook and The Washington Post Answer Sheet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/21/anti-testing-groups-form-alliance-to-bring-sanity-to-education-policy/
"The founding members of the alliance are the Center for Fair & Open Testing, or FairTest, as well as Parents Across America, United Opt Out, Network for Public Education, and Save Our Schools."
Anti-testing groups form alliance to bring sanity to education policy
(Bigstock)
With resistance to standardized test-obsessed school reform growing
around the country, three dozen local, state and national organizations
and individuals have now banded together in an alliance to expand
efforts to bring sanity to education policy.
The alliance, which is called
Testing Resistance and Reform Spring, will support a range of public
education and mobilizing tactics — including boycotts, opt-out
campaigns, rallies and legislation — in its effort to stop the high-stakes use of standardized tests,
to reduce the number of standardized exams, and to replace
multiple-choice tests with performance-based assessments and school
work. The alliance will help activists in different parts of the country
connect through a new Web site that offers resources for activists, including fact sheets and guides on how to hold events to get out their message.
The emergence of the alliance represents a maturing of the grassroots testing resistance that has been building for several years
locally in states , including Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois.
Though many supporters of Barack Obama expected him to end the
standardized testing obsession of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind
when Obama was first elected president, many now say that the Obama
administration has gone beyond the excesses of NCLB to inappropriately
make high-stakes standardized tests the key measure of achievement by
students, teachers, principals and schools. | Anti-testing groups form alliance to bring sanity to education policy
The coalition represents a maturing of the anti-testing movement.
|
Assessment experts say that standardized test scores are not a
reliable or valid way to make high stakes decisions about the
effectiveness of teachers or the achievement of students, but education
policymakers have ignored these warnings for years. This has led to
situations that are nothing short of preposterous, such as teachers
being evaluated
on the test scores of students they never had.
Meanwhile, the emphasis on testing has led to an explosion of tests
being given to kids; for example, fourth-graders in the Pittsburgh
Public Schools have to take
33 standardized tests mandated by the district or state this school year. It is this reality that has fueled the resistance.
The founding members of the alliance are the Center for Fair & Open Testing, or FairTest, as well as Parents Across America, United Opt Out, Network for Public Education, and Save Our Schools.
Prominent educators, activists and bloggers who are partners in the alliance are:
Wayne Au, associate professor, University of Washington
Anthony Cody, teacher, blogger
Nikhil Goyal, student, activist
Jesse Hagopian, teacher, Garfield High School, Seattle, Washington
Deborah Meier
Diane Ravitch
Angela Valenzuela, professor, U-Texas, Austin
George Wood, superintendent, Federal Hocking Local Schools, Stewart, Ohio
Organizations that are alliance partners are:
National
Coalition for Essential Schools
HispanEduca
K-12 News Network
National Latino/a Education Research and Policy (NLERAP)
Rethinking Schools
State and Local
Change the Stakes (New York)
Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE)
Citizens for Public Schools (Massachussetts)
Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) (Kentucky)
MecklenburgACTS.org (North Carolina)
More Than a Score (Chicago)
New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE)
Opt Out Orlando (Florida)
Parents United for Responsible Education (Chicago)
ReThinking Testing Midhudson Region (New York)
Social Equality Educators (Seattle)
Students 4 Our School (Denver)
SWside Parents Alliance (Chicago)
Teacher Activist Group – TAG Boston
Texas Center for Education Policy
Time Out from Testing (New York)
Youth Organizers for the Now Generation (YOUNG) (Boston)