Author: FairTest

As FairTest’s first-generation leaders move toward retirement., the organization has begun the process of planning for a smooth transition. The first step is hiring a consultant to develop a new strategic plan to make the assessment reform movement even more effective. Working with current staff, board, and other stakeholders, the ideal candidate will also be […]

Join us for a webinar on Feb 12, 2017 at 8:00 PM EST. Register now! https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3706654188322704899 Join Ann Cook of the New York Performance Standards Consortium and Monty Neill of FairTest in this free webinar about performance assessment, Sunday, February 12, from 8 – 9 PM EST. The Consortium’s public high schools ignore most state-mandated […]

A reporter, who called FairTest today for a comment on a breaking story, said it well, “Every time I read your news clip compilations, I’m shocked at how much testing reform activity is going on across the country.” We hope these weekly summaries are just as helpful in making your work more productive. Please send […]

Happy New Year! Assessment reformers across the U.S. are gearing up for winning campaigns in 2017 around three central goals: Fewer standardized exams, leaving additional time for teaching and learning No high-stakes (mis)uses of test results to make major decisions about students, educators, schools or districts More space to create performance-based assessments that tap a […]

This is the final issue of “Testing Resistance & Reform News” for 2016. It’s been a good year — a record number of colleges eliminated ACT/SAT admissions exam requirement, driving the total to more than 900, the number of states requiring graduation tests plunged to a multi-decade low, and grassroots assessment reformers grew more powerful […]

Thousands of readers like you — grassroots activists, educators, journalists, and policy-makers — rely on these weekly news clips to stay on top of assessment reform initiatives around the nation. Your year-end contribution makes it possible for FairTest to publish these updates as well as advocacy tools such as the new fact sheets linked in […]

Technology “permits us now to do in nanoseconds things we shouldn’t be doing at all.”– Gerald Bracey Education policymakers and technology providers have joined forces to accelerate a longtime push for “test data-driven” education interventions. Both sectors look to computer-based curricula and data collected with online tests to control classrooms and define educational outcomes. Though […]

With the 2016-2017 school testing season right around the year-end, holiday vacation corner — some states start administering their annual exams in February — the pace of assessment reform news is accelerating. Parents, teachers, administrators and, increasingly, policy-makers now recognize that current school testing policies undermine educational quality and equity. Many are pushing for significant […]

Assessment reform activists are taking advantage of opportunities under the new federal education law to push back against testing overkill with a range of proposals from auditing local standardized exam requirements to overhauling statewide school evaluation policies. To ensure that we have the capacity to support winning grassroots campaigns, please include FairTest in your year-end […]

It’sGiving Tuesday,a national time for generous donors like you to provide much needed funding for the non-profits whose activities they rely on . . . like this newsclip service. To support campaigns to roll back testing misuse and overuse, please take advantage of this special day to contribute to FairTest by clicking onhttps://donatenow.networkforgood.org/fairtestor by using […]