Testing Resistance & Reform News: June 26 – July 2, 2019

With the Spring 2019 testing season over and classrooms closed for the summer, many education news stories are focusing on the misuse of standardized exam results to evaluate school and teacher quality. It’s great to see the increasing breadth of voices criticizing current test-driven policies

Please remember Deborah Meier’s plea for donations to help FairTest take advantage of the changing climate by building more winning assessment reform campaigns for this fall.
http://www.fairtest.org/deb-meier-winning-testing-reform-victories

Thanks for your support!

Florida Politically Driven State Test Scores Are “Accountabaloney”
http://accountabaloney.com/index.php/2019/06/23/prediction-state-test-score-release-will-result-in-accountabaloney/

Illinois Radical Changes Needed in School Rating System
http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2019/06/we-need-radical-change-in-way-we-rate.html

Massachusetts Business Leaders Criticize High-Stakes Testing Fixation
https://www.citizensforpublicschools.org/statement-of-the-association-of-business-leaders-for-education-able-on-high-stakes-standardized-testing/

Michigan Rapid School Turnarounds Are a Myth
https://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/can-failing-schools-be-rapidly-turned-around/article_1fc87fe2-a0f0-5519-938c-0c6e1e231e61.html

Mississippi Hundreds of Teachers Lose Jobs Due to Licensing Test, Underscoring National Problem
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-loses-hundreds-teachers-due-licensing-issue-underscoring-national-problem-n1020676
Mississippi State Testing Must Be Kept Under Control
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/editorials/our-opinion-state-testing-must-be-kept-in-proper-context/article_54c61d9f-b453-501d-9e3f-c38b2cf4dbcb.html

New Jersey Things Education “Reformers” Still Don’t Understand About Testing
https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/things-education-reformers

North Carolina State Will Delay Roll Out of Computer-Based Reading Test for Young Children
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article232045842.html

Pennsylvania The Pitfalls of Over-Reliance on Standardized Exam Scores
https://cumberlink.com/news/local/closer_look/making-the-grade-the-pitfalls-of-over-reliance-on-standardized/article_b5c43794-0b83-5034-ad84-c82f1ad60b3f.html
Pennsylvania Test Results Reflect Socioeconomic Status
https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/socioeconomic-status-plays-role-in-test-results-1.2502786

Tennessee Pearson Signs $40 Million Two-Year Contract for State Exams
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2019/06/28/tennessee-signs-two-year-40-million-testing-contract-with-pearson/
Tennessee Pearson’s Real “Track Record” of Testing Failures
https://www.fairtest.org/pearsons-history-testing-problems

Washington Clearing the Fog From Educational Testing
https://www.heraldnet.com/business/specificity-could-clear-the-fog-away-from-educational-testing/

University Admissions First a Trickle, Then a Surge: Why More Grad Schools Are Going GRE-Optional
https://www.publicradioeast.org/post/first-trickle-and-then-surge-why-more-grad-schools-are-going-gre-optional

Worth Reading Standardized Tests Are Not an “Objective” Measure of Anything
https://gadflyonthewallblog.com/2019/06/29/standardized-tests-are-not-objective-measures-of-anything/

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org

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