Education Reform Movement?

Below is another attempt to get some kind of traction against high stakes testing.  There is certainly value in using such a resolution to find out where the consensus is regarding high stakes testing.  But as long as we are reacting to another's agenda (in this case, the Business Roundtable's), we can work on gaining consensus on ours. What is our vision of what education should look like?  Certainly not what it was pre 1990.  Public schools continue to sort and socialize, as they have been designed to do from the beginning.  Education, when it happens, does so in spite of the structure and pedagogy of the public (and private) schools.

Help Build the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing campaign!

http://www.timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution

 
The Resolution campaign continued to gain strength over the summer. We now have more than 430 organizations and 13,000 individuals!  Our work has earned national attention, including from the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

In Florida, school boards in several of the state's largest districts and the state PTA endorsed it, and the Florida State School Board Association passed a parallel resolution. More than 830 Texas school boards representing 88 percent of the state’s children have signed a similar resolution. School boards in Ohio, Oklahoma and Virginia have also endorsed it. PTA’s and PTO’s and many other kinds of groups have also signed on. 

With outreach in additional states, we'll have an even stronger impact! Getting more organizations to endorse is an essential part of this campaign. Now that school is back in session, it is a good time get more signers and increase attention to this issue.

Your organization’s help is needed to build testing reform clout. You can expand the campaign with any or all of these actions:

• Put a link to the Resolution signature page on your website and/or in your newsletter: (http://www.timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution).
• Inform local media of your endorsement, perhaps in a letter to the editor, such as the samples at http://www.fairtest.org/how-you-can-build-support-national-resolution-high.
• Write/adapt an op-ed for your local paper (see sample at the above link).
• Reach out to allied organizations in your community, region or state, and encourage them to sign on.
• Organize a public meeting in your community to discuss testing and the Resolution campaign, with an eye on what to do to overhaul assessment policies.

Thanks again for your help! If you have questions or suggestions for additional actions to advance the Resolution, please contact Monty Neill at (617) 477-9792 or monty@fairtest.org.

The Sponsoring Committee for the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing