Testing Resistance & Reform News: March 6 - 13, 2013

At the risk of information overkill, here's a fat package of just one week's clips reporting the rising tide of resistance to high-stakes testing. For more details on the scope and impact of the growing national movement, check out the March issue of FairTest's Examiner newsletter at http://fairtest.org/newsletter/current

Student Protests Against Testing Are Spreading
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/11/student-protests-against-standardized-tests-spreading/

Denver Students Plan Walkout to Protest Excessive Testing
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX7_yOmt95o&noredirect=1

Standardized Tests Are Killing Our Students' Creativity, Desire to Learn
   http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_22742832
 

When in Doubt, Just Pick "C"
   http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_22767415/when-doubt-just-pick-c

Texans Debunk Test-Driven Reform
  http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/03/john_thompson_texans_debunk_te.html

Group Calls for Radical Changes to Standardized Tests
  http://diverseeducation.com/article/51818/#

Community Forum on High-Stakes Testing Resolution
  http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/03/12/news/doc513e8e65df993811340266.txt

Use the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing in your local organizing
  http://www.timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution

Cash-Strapped Schools Forced to Absorb Costs of New Common Core Tests
  http://www.ohio.com/news/state-fails-to-price-new-tests-schools-absorb-unknown-costs-1.380529
see FairTest's fact sheet -- Common Core Assessments: More Tests, But Not Much Better
  http://www.fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-more-tests-not-much-better

"Failing" School Passes the Real Tests
  http://www.norwalkcitizenonline.com/news/article/Failing-school-passes-the-test-in-the-eyes-of-4351627.php

Feds Grant Newtown Schools One-Year Testing Waiver
  http://articles.courant.com/2013-03-06/news/hc-newtown-test-waiver-0307-20130306_1_newtown-students-newtown-elementary-connecticut-mastery-test

Madison, NJ Educators Honored for Resisting Testing Mandates
  http://newjerseyhills.com/madison_eagle/news/madison-educators-honored-for-taking-on-state-mandates/article_1e8ff1fa-8ab5-11e2-9ed2-001a4bcf887a.html

New Group Will Grade, Endorse Candidates on Testing-Related Policies
  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/education/diane-ravitch-joins-group-to-monitor-public-schools.html

NCLB Waivers Won't Help Education -- an excellent example of a pithy letter to the editor
  http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/03/06/3199857/waivers-wont-help-education.html#storylink=misearch

Law Professors See the Damage Done by "No Child Left Behind"
  http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/03/12/law-professors-see-the-damage-done-by-no-child-left-behind/

Teachers Make Handy Scapegoats, But Spiraling Inequality Is Really What Ails Our Education System
  http://www.alternet.org/education/teachers-make-handy-scapegoats-spiraling-inequality-really-what-ails-our-education-system

Conservative Embrace of High-Stakes Testing is Misguided
  http://www.thestate.com/2013/03/08/2664813/thomas-conservatives-poor-stewards.html

An Unfair Test for Teachers
  http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/197223541.html

A Test to Administer the Test ?
  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pa-pssa-teacher-test-20130310,0,5482151,full.story
  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-pssa-teacher-test-apology-20130311,0,2819310.story

High-Stakes Testing is Common Core's "Hurricane Sandy"
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/11/storm-of-reform-principal-details-damage-done/

"I Have Had Enough" Veteran Teacher Tells School Board
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/10/i-have-had-enough-veteran-teacher-tells-school-board/