Testing Reform in the News — October 31 – November 8, 2012

With the 2012 election now history, we can return to the hard work of making politicians see the light about the need for real assessment reform.

FairTest offers several new columns and fact sheets as resources for that ongoing campaign along with links to a number of good pieces by our allies

Why So Many People Are Saying “Enough is Enough” to High-Stakes Testing
http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/31/why-so-many-people-say-enough-enough-high-stakes-testing

Better Alternatives to Standardized Testing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/02/an-alternative-to-standardized-testing-for-student-assessment/

A Better Way to Evaluate Teachers
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-darling-teacher-evaluations-20121105,0,650639.story

High-Stakes Testing Promoter Booted as Indiana Super; Replaced by Teacher
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121107/ELECTION01/311079919/1002/LOCAL

An Open Letter to President Obama
http://www.good.is/posts/an-open-letter-to-president-obama-from-bill-ayers/

Another Educator Calls on Obama to Change Course
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/07/a-call-for-president-obama-to-change-course-on-education/

Parents Complain About Too Much Testing to Oklahoma Super, Who Agrees
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20121108_19_A15_CUTLIN194727

Common Core Tests = More Taxpayer $$$ — this is a national issue (see FairTest fact sheet at: https://fairtest.orgdata.com.org/common-core-assessments-more-tests-not-much-better)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/local-education/school-district-needs-to-spend-12-million-on-compu/nSsxw/

Closing the Achievement Gap: Have We Flat-Lined? — more evidence that test-driven schooling is a failure
http://eyeoned.org/content/closing-the-achievement-gap-have-we-flat-lined_379/

Is Test-Mania Killing Interest in Science Teaching?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/11/is_test_mania_killing_interest.html

Philadelphia Suspends Faulty School Rating System — hard data got in the way of another faith-based evaluation system
http://thenotebook.org/blog/125293/philly-district-suspends-school-rating-system-seeks-fix

Pearson Pays Out $623K for Test-Scoring Error That Blocked Graduation
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121025/NEWS01/310240052/Pearson-North-America-scoring-error-prevented-5-Mississippi-students-from-graduating-affected-121-others

Tags: