More victories in rolling back high-stakes testing misuse this week, but there's still a long way to go to achieve real assessment reform. Use these stories as ammunition in your local and statewide campaigns.
With each passing week, it becomes ever clearer that public school assessment policies are framed more by political, ideological, and business concerns than educational evidence. Keeping the heat on politicians, exposing their motivations and documenting the financial interests of the testing industry helps build the clout necessary to win genuine reforms.
Multiple States What Happens When "Formative" and "Summative" Assessment Markets Combine
Politicians are finally beginning to heed the assessment reform message. In state after state, grassroots activism by parents, students, educators and community leaders is forcing policy makers to roll back standardized exam requirements, particularly the high-states consequences attached to test scores. Keep the pressure on!
Multiple States Could Testing Wreck Civics Education?
The drumbeat of criticism documenting the negative fallout from test-driven education policies grows ever louder. With each passing school day, more parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders recognize the damage being inflicted on educational quality and equity. It's time for policymakers to pay attention . . . or be replaced!
California Assigning Single Grade to Every School Is Too Simplistic
Grade retention and diploma denials are among the worst politically motivated misuses of standardized tests. That's why assessment reform activists have made repealing these counter-productive policies a top priority. Check out these FairTest fact sheets for ammunition to use in your local campaigns.
As evidence of the many failures of test-driven school "reform" continues to mount, more parents, educators, and community leaders are organizing effective campaigns to roll back standardized exam misuse and overuse. Use these models to build victories in your home state.
Though classrooms have not even opened for the fall semester in many parts of the country, activists are already posting victories -- often won with support from FairTest -- that will overhaul school testing policies.
The new school year is shaping up to be a pivotal period for the assessment reform movement. Already, a spate of stories have appeared documenting new policies that roll back some of the worst cases of testing overkill. And there's much more coverage of the damage being done to educational quality and equity by the fixation on standardized exams.
National Flawed Computer Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students Essay Exams