Massachusetts

UNITED OPT OUT COORDINATOR:

• Ricardo Rosa

ORGANIZATIONS & RESOURCES:

• Citizens for Public Schools: What We Know: Opting Out of PARCC Pilot Tests

• Massachusetts Statement against High-Stakes Standardized Testing

  • List of Endorsers

  • MA Educators Statement - Press Release Feb. 2013

• FairTest Written Testimony to the MA House on School-to-Prison-Pipeline Bills.

• Flawed Massachusetts Teacher Evaluation Proposal Risks Further Damage to Teaching and Learning, by a FairTest working group; report and summary are here.

• See Monty Neill's second written testimony to Mass Bd of Ed on teacher evaluation
   
• FairTest and allies testified to Mass Board of Education against proposed educator evaluation proposals; their spoken comments are here.

• FairTest Written Testimony to Mass Board of Education against using
  student scores to judge teachers.
   

• See legislative testimony by FairTest's Monty Neill and others in support of a bill to overhaul assessment.

  • http://www.childrenleftbehind.com/6.html and

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUSODYb-qXc

     

• 2009 Legislation to overhaul state MCAS testing program is here. This bill is supported by Citizens for Public Schools and is based on proposals by CARE: http://www.fairtest.org/call-authentic-state-wide-assessment-system

• Citizens for Public Schools maintains an open listserv addressing assessment and other issues. To subscribe, send a blank message to care-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; or go to  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/care/ and sign up from there.

   

• Tufts University student James Gerber's video on how Massachusetts' MCAS standardized history test will undermine Boston Arts Academy's in-depth and multifaceted approach to teaching art and history. It is in two parts, part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mh5GonqJoQ and part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVI6BfBZGPg&NR=1

• A useful MA website is http://www.massparents.org

• New June 2008 - FairTest's Lisa Guisbond participated in the MCAS and Assessments subcommittee of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Readiness Project. Here is a one-page summary of the subcommittee report."

• Coalition for the Education of the Whole Child report proposes major changes in state testing and accountability.

• Massparents site features Research Showing that MA Dept. of Education inflates MCAS pass rates for classes of 2005 and 2006, masking wide opportunity and achievement gaps.

• Information on Massachusetts' Rising Droppout Rates.