The testing resistance continues to expand rapidly across the U.S. with assessment reform news updates from two dozen states in just the past four days.
Normally, FairTest sends out these news clips summaries once a week, early each Tuesday afternoon. With school standardized exam season now in full gear, however, the flow of stories about testing resistance and reform actions is accelerating rapidly. This special edition -- with updates from more than half the 50 states over just three days -- reports on the first, too-modest steps by policy makers across the U.S. to respond to the growing grassroots pressure for assessment reform.
Across the nation, resistance to test overuse and misuse reached unprecedented levels in spring 2015. The rapidly growing movement built on significant test opposition unleashed in 2013-14. The resistance to standardized exam overkill erupted in more states with far more participants, and it won notable victories.
The Testing Resistance and Reform Movement, based on interviews with dozens of activists, provides insights on how they built rapidly growing, successful campaigns.
Resistance to the overuse and misuse of standardized tests is expanding rapidly across the nation (Guisbond, 2014). The movement’s goals are to roll back testing overkill, eliminate damaging high stakes, and create an assessment system that supports teaching and learning while providing useful information to parents, communities and states. Some states have responded to the uprising by temporarily pausing some sanctions for teachers and schools.
