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Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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Anti-High-Stakes Testing

Americans for Educational Testing Reform (AETR) has as its mission simply to repeal the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status granted to ETS, Collegeboard, and ACT, Inc.

Children are More than Test Scores is a blog run by teacher Jesse Turner, called the “Walking Man” due to his passionate trekking for children from Connecticut to Washington, DC in 2011, and for a myriad of other activist activities fighting for public schools. He is for those who are against No Child Left Behind and Race to the top and it is truly worth hearing him out.

Class Size Matters: A nonpartisan, nonprofit Clearinghouse for information on the proven benefits of smaller classes advocates for class size reduction in New York City, and the website provides information for all school districts. It is a non-profit, non-partisan organization “that provides information on the benefits of class size reduction to parents, teachers, and concerned citizens.” Executive Director, Leonie Haimson, has received numerous awards and has been presented in the media discussing this and other important issues relating to school reform. More recently the website has addressed the serious student privacy issues surrounding inBloom.

Coalition for Better Education (CBE) involves aspiring teachers from the University of Northern Colorado started CBE which now includes teachers, parents and students raising awareness about the costs of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) and NCLB.

Critical Classrooms is a blog about testing in general and more specifically in New York City. Katie Lapham is an ESL teacher in Brooklyn who could no longer remain silent about the overuse and amount of time preparing for standardized testing and Common Core assessments. Her blog posts are interesting and provide a good sense of the problems surrounding high-stakes testing and how they affect children.

Fair Test: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing provides updated information concerning testing and educational issues. Special emphasis is placed on “eliminating the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests, and preventing their damage to the quality of education.” The testing concerns focus on technical assistance and advocacy on testing. The focus on technical assistance and advocacy on testing covers K-12, university admissions, and employment tests.

Opt Out Orlando works to assist parents in Florida to opt their children out of harmful high-stakes tests. The blogging on this site is excellent and full of valuable information. While it is an important website for Florida, it provides insight into the testing problems around the country. I like that they advocate for “multiple measures.” Here is the description of Opt Out Orlando taken from their site: “Opt Out Orlando advocates for multiple measures of authentic assessments, such as a portfolio, non-high stakes standardized tests (Iowa Test of Basic Standards (ITBS) or the Stanford Achievement Test(SAT10)), which are used to inform teachers’ instruction of their students and which do not result in punitive consequences for students, teachers and schools. Formal and informal, teacher-designed classroom assessments provide the best indicators of children’s progress, growth and mastery of concepts and skills. Opt Out Orlando rejects high stakes testing as meaningless and detrimental to the development of a creative, nurturing and supportive learning environment.”

United Opt Out National is a movement to end corporate education reform. Tired of watching your child be repeatedly tested? Sick of seeing high-stakes testing close public schools and destroy the careers of teachers? The goal is to encourage parents and educators to “opt out of high stakes testing and resist all market-based reforms seeking to privatize and destroy public education.” The organization provides a “Back to School Protest Pack” and additional resources. There are also “Opt Out Guides by State.” Check to see what your state is doing and how you can help with this important effort.

Facebook

Moms Against Duncan

Parents & Kids Against Standardized Testing

Testing is Not Teaching

Test Troublemakers

Reports

10 Strategies to Fight Mandatory Retention & Other Damaging Policies by Suzanne Health, Research Editor, Wrightslaw

Thinking About Tests and Testing: A Short Primer in “Assessment Literacy.” by Gerald W. Bracey

Film Documentary and YouTube Videos

Beyond Measure  Challenges  Americans to look beyond test scores at the students themselves. This is from the author of Race to Nowhere. By Vicki Abeles

Defies Measurement Is about the unique Chipman Middle School, closed after the implementation of NCLB. A variety of leading education experts discuss the problems involved with high stakes testing. By Shannon Puckett.

Race to Nowhere is a documentary that describes the troubled high-stakes testing emphasis in schools today.  By Vicki Abeles

We’re Not Going to Take It–REFUSE TESTING by HomeschoolersRock1

Books

The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools

by Alfie Kohn

The Class Size Debate by Lawrence Mishel & Richard Rothstein-Editors

Caught in the Middle: Nonstandard Kids and a Killing Curriculum by Susan Ohanian

Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America’s Schools by Sharon L. Nichols and David C. Berliner

Educational Genocide: A Plague on Our Children by Horace (Rog) Lucido

Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right by Richard Rothstein

Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us by Daniel Koretz

The Mismeasure of Education by Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn

The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould

The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don’t Tell You What You Think They Do by Phillip Harris, Bruce M. Smith, and Joan Harris

One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards by Susan Ohanian

Pencils Down: Rethinking High Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools Edited by Wayn Au and Melissa Bollow Tempel

The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards,” by Alfie Kohn

This is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and the Future of Education by José Luis Vilson

Standardized Minds:The High Price of America’s Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It by Peter Sacks

The Sum of Our Discontent: Why Numbers Make Us Irrational by David Boyle

The Truth About Testing: An Educator’s Call to Action by W. James Popham

Comments

  1. Janis Jones says

    October 4, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    My husband and I adopted our granddaughter when she was two. She is now 9 and we are 64 and 62. I am trying to understand how all of this testing and common core is going to affect her and us in the coming years. We absolutely cannot afford a private education. She reads to me each night and struggles with comprehension. Her teachers have been wonderful and I hate that teachers are being judged by test scores. There is no common sense in common core.

    Reply

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Author, Ph.D. Ed. Leadership and longtime teacher, Blogging for Kids, Teachers, Parents & Democratic Public Schools.

NancyEBailey1
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doctorsam7 Dr. Sam Bommarito @doctorsam7 ·
10h

Thanks to @eriuqse695 for bringin this article to ur attention. Chall's views @ChaseJYoung1 @NarelleLyn @londonjohn9 @LRobbTeacher @ericlitwinbooks @pvalleybooks @JPageLiteracy @TCRecord @RacheGabriel @ssvincent @MicheleDufresne @plthomasEdD @EllinKeene @TimRasinski1 https://twitter.com/DoctorSam7/status/1640376017809289219

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7

@KJWinEducation Also, consider this well-researched piece indicating that the views of the extreme phonics folks don't square the views of Jean Chall, the researcher who championed the use of phonics during the last reading wars. https://nancyebailey.com/2023/03/26/the-science-of-reading-and-the-rejection-of-picture-books/?fbclid=IwAR3K0fz-cWKbAh-mitL347hMrWGEjC0Gtd_PIxegTc0RiuzPoXxXSdoW7Cg

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nepctweet NEPC @nepctweet ·
9h

"Good teaching has always been – even if unacknowledged – about applying new knowledge and challenging beliefs." @NancyEBailey1 @janresseger https://bit.ly/42Hw3td

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nancyflanagan nancyflanagan @nancyflanagan ·
26 Mar

Remember the days when Arne Duncan insisted that having different ‘goal posts’ in every state was preventing us from improving public schools in America? Good times.

I wish I could say we’ve evolved since 2015, when Duncan stepped down. https://teacherinastrangeland.blog/2023/03/25/the-absolute-folly-of-standardization/

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leoniehaimson leonie haimson @leoniehaimson ·
26 Mar

Reminder: join us tonight at 7PM EST for #TalkoutofSchool @wbai with Rep. @JamaalBowmanNY discussing his new bill #MoreTeachingLessTesting; & 2 PEP members @tomcsheppard & @OuterBoroHero explaining why they voted no on the Mayor's education budget.

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nancyebailey1 Nancy E. Bailey @nancyebailey1 ·
26 Mar

Science of Reading camp never discusses the importance of picture books. How much time do children get to explore them? How often are they read to for enjoyment? This is worrisome. https://nancyebailey.com/2023/03/26/the-science-of-reading-and-the-rejection-of-picture-books/

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