resistance

FairTest Report: Test Reform Victories Surge in 2017: What’s Behind the Winning Strategies?

Assessment reform campaigns rolled back the amount of testing and slashed

FairTest worked with the National Coalition of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA) Time on Learning Committee to develop a survey that teacher unions can use with their members to expose the consequences of high-stakes testing. It can be adapted for use by parent, student and community groups.

The survey is available at https://www.jotform.com/form-templates/2017-time-to-learn-survey.

Parents and students often fear the threat that if they opt out of state exams, their school could lose funding. However, this is an empty threat: no school has lost funding because of opting out.

In fact, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) specifically authorizes states to allow parents to opt their children out of exams. Ten states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin) have laws specifically allowing parents to opt their children out. None has ever been sanctioned.

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the latest version of the long-standing Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It replaces the widely despised “No Child Left Behind.” The new law presents both opportunities and dangers for the testing resistance and reform movement.

for further information:                                                                
Lisa Guisbond (617) 959-2371
Bob Schaeffer  (239) 395-6773

For release Wednesday, September 8, 2016

With public schools closing for the summer, many states are reviewing their 2015-2016 testing experience (once again, not a pretty picture) and planning to implement assessment reforms in coming years.  You can help stop the U.S. Department of Education from promoting testing misuse and overuse by weighing in on proposed Every Student Succeeds Act regulations.

FairTest has created a PowerPoint presentation on how to organize testing resistance and reform under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

You can view it in pdf here.

Welcome! This page lists standardized test resistance, refusal and reform actions and events by state. These include opting out, public forums and meetings, rallies, news conferences, legislative action days, and more.

If you have an action or event to share, let us know at fairtest@fairtest.org and we will post it here.

You can use the hashtags #resistthetests and #optout2016 to post your actions on Facebook and Twitter.

"[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.