state resources

Materials from FairTest-National Education Association State Assessment Reform Conference

Transforming State Assessment Systems: Conference Materials

In May 2009, FairTest and the National Education Association held a conference on transforming state assessment systems. Materials from this conference include:

- Potential Principles for Building High-Quality State Assessment Systems (a starting point for conference discussions)

These Stories in Assessment Reform provide a closer look at how school reform activists in various locations have made the case against harmful testing policies and built local and statewide grassroots campaigns to change them.

You can learn their strategies, read and use sample materials, and grasp a better idea of how different tactics have worked in different social and political contexts. You will also learn about pitfalls to avoid.

From Chicago

The main captions are things you probably will need to think about; the bulleted points are examples of things you might consider/address/do.

Identify the problem:
- High Stakes for students or schools/educators [note federal law]
- Impact of testing on curriculum and instruction
- Unequal/inadequate resources despite high-stakes demands
- Too much testing (too many tests, too many grades)

A successful effort on your part to interest a news organization in a story will almost always present you with the opportunity to provide someone for the reporter to interview. From the point of view of reporters and editors, your story suggestion or your news release are the starting points of the story. They advance the story by interviewing people involved, people who are experts, people who are responsible, people who benefit, or sometimes just people who have seen the events of the story as witnesses.

Editors of most newspapers make provision for the public to be heard through letters to the editorial columns.

by Rochelle Lefkowitz
and Bob Schaeffer