Rural Assembly Says Abolish High-Stakes Testing

The National Rural Assembly has called for "abolishing high-stakes testing" and "restructuring accountability systems to focus on community improvement." In the final report from its June 2008 meeting the group recommends that the new U.S. president, "Stop high-stakes testing that does not fix the achievement gap, but rather pushes students, teachers, and administrators out of schools."

The Assembly, an alliance of dozens of organizations, also supports "place-based" education, which seeks to integrate academics with the local social and natural environments. Participants in the education discussions clearly approve of performance assessments that support place-based curriculum and improved accountability. FairTest staff participated in the discussions.

The report is available at http://www.ruralassembly.org/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=31&page_id=27.