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As the annual standardized exams required by misguided federal and state laws begin to be administered across the country, more policy makers, educators, and parents are questioning the value of the testing regime and its results. Two decades after the passage of "No Child Left Behind," high-stakes "accountability" schemes are still failing to improve educational achievement or narrow historic gaps between student groups. It's time for real assessment reform!

As the annual standardized exams required by misguided federal and state laws begin to be administered across the country, more policy makers, educators, and parents are questioning the value of the testing regime and its results. Two decades after the passage of "No Child Left Behind," high-stakes "accountability" schemes are still failing to improve educational achievement or narrow historic gaps between student groups. It's time for real assessment reform!

As the annual standardized exams required by misguided federal and state laws begin to be administered across the country, more policy makers, educators, and parents are questioning the value of the testing regime and its results. Two decades after the passage of "No Child Left Behind," high-stakes "accountability" schemes are still failing to improve educational achievement or narrow historic gaps between student groups. It's time for real assessment reform!

As more 2021 test results are made public -- with predictable declines from COVID's impact -- a growing number of educational leaders are speaking out about the worthlessness of these scores.  At the same time, spring 2022 standardized exams are being administered with no evidence that their results will be any more helpful in improving learning and teaching.  Doing the same thing over and over despite a track-record of failure is the definition of insanity!

Annual federal and state-mandated standardized testing programs are underway diverting entire school days from teaching and learning in a year when students need more educational time and emotional support.  Across the country, many parents and teachers are responding by planning to pull children out of standardized exams, as this week's clips demonstrate. See why and how to refuse the tests at:

Here comes testing season! The upcoming weeks of wasted learning time and counter-productive pressure on students and teachers, create an opportunity  to educate the public about the flaws of standardized exam driven "school reform" while organizing parents to support better forms of assessment. 

With COVID receding, test-and-punish advocates are calling for a return to the pre-pandemic, business-as-usual administration of standardized exams this spring. But across the country, assessment reformers are pushing back by pressing for ongoing suspensions of test score consequences and organizing opt-out campaigns. In a number of state capitals, policy-makers are responding by reducing testing volume, suspending high-stakes, and questioning the continuation of policies that have failed to improve academic achievement or close demographic learning gaps.

As politicians and ideologues press to resume "normal" spring standardized exam schedules, the drumbeat of opposition to schools testing-for-the-sake-of-testing -- particular in the wake of an education-disrupting pandemic -  grows louder.  In an ever-larger number of jurisdictions, the message is beginning to reach policymakers: more and more are reducing testing volume and consequences.  Check out the    bills referenced in this week's news clips as potential models for your state.

Though dealing with other pressing priorities, policymakers in many states are continuing to advance assessment reform legislation. FairTest staff are available to assist your local campaigns by providing remote or written testimony on relevant bills to help move good proposals forward or block new test-and-punish schemes.  Let us know how we can help by emailing fairtest@fairtest.org.

National How to Fix the Broken U.S. School Accountability System

Despite sharp ideological differences on many education-related policies, legislators in several more states have been able to agree on proposals to reduce standardized testing overkill. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, it is clear that public schools are forced to administer too many high-stakes standardized exams.  Assessment reform is not inherently a partisan issue.

Alabama Legislature Moves to Postpone Test-Based Grade Retention Law