resistance

Your voice can help make a difference! Use this letter to urge your Senators and Representative in the U.S. Congress to support a reduction in standardized testing to once each in elementary, middle and high schools, while ending punitive sanctions. The House and Senate education committees plan to start re-writing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as NCLB) by mid-February. You can strengthen your message by adding your own comments, such as your and your children’s personal experiences with overtesting.

Thank you.

The Testing Resistance and Reform Movement, based on interviews with dozens of activists, provides insights on how they built rapidly growing, successful campaigns.

See:

Time for a Real Testing Moratorium

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.

Schools and districts that receive federal Title I funds sometimes claim they will lose funds if parents, students or teachers boycott standardized tests required under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). As far as we know, no school or district anywhere in the country has ever been penalized for failing to test enough (95%) of its students. Parents, students and teachers generally should not fear harmful consequences to their schools due to federal law if parents boycott standardized tests. Here is why:

95% Rule

for further information:
Dr. Monty Neill     (617) 477-9792
or Bob Schaeffer  (239) 395-6773                                                         
for immediate release Monday, September 8, 2014

for further information:

for further information:
Bob Schaeffer  (239) 395-6773
                                                        
for immediate release Thursday, August 28, 2014

If the issues were not so serious, watching test-and-punish advocates backpedal in the face of the rapidly growing testing resistance movement would be great entertainment. From U.S.

Another week of accelerating protests against high-stakes testing. If you find these news summaries useful for your assessment reform work, please contribute to help FairTest http://tinyurl.com/supportfairtest as suggested by Michelle Fine in her acceptance speech at last week's "Heroes in Education" awards presentation          

The 2014 round of standardized exam administration got underway in several states this week. As predicted by FairTest and our Testing Resistance & Reform Spring (TRRS) allies, opt-out campaigns and other forms of protest exploded in many communities. In just the past three days, we've seen so many great news clips that we could not wait until our normal Tuesday distribution date to circulate them nationally.