The Testing Resistance and Reform Movement, Monthly Review

“[The] refusal to participate in federally mandated testing programs likely represents a turning point in the history of assessment reform in the United States. The next few years will tell, as activists plan to dramatically increase refusals and to win policy changes in the states. Their avowed goals include less testing, an end to high-stakes uses of tests (that is, making decisions about students, educators, or schools solely or primarily on test scores), and implementation of other, educationally sound assessment practices.

“This essay briefly traces the history of testing in public schools from its beginnings in the 1920s, through the counter-productive No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal law, to passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015. It then discusses the recent and rapid emergence of the testing resistance and reform movement.”

The article is one in a special Monthly Review issue, The Opt Out Revolt.

The article is at http://monthlyreview.org/2016/03/01/the-testing-resistance-and-reform-mo…

The complete issue is at http://monthlyreview.org/archives/2016/volume-67-issue-10-march/ (articles are made available for free over a multi-week span before the whole issue is free).

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The article is also available as a pdf here.

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