Victims No More:
Parents Begin to Rebel Against Standardized Testing

11/8/2012

We know that the overuse/misuse of standardized testing marginalizes the teaching profession – it belittles the teachers and the students they teach. In many school districts across the country, teachers are largely powerless to fight back against irresponsible assessment. There’s a wealth of evidence that states tying teacher evaluation to student test performance does not improve teaching or learning. But educators alone can’t prevent standardized testing abuse. No, if we are ever going to change the current misuse of standardized testing, we parents have to take a stand. After all, we are not just parents, we’re taxpayers and voters. When we assume those roles, the politicians and policy makers are more likely to listen to us. And I have no doubt that if we parents took a stand against excessive testing, that the politically misdirected, punitive language towards teachers would end.

There are already parent movements against standardized testing. The following from www.fairtest.org documents the growing nationwide movement of parents against standardized testing. Here’s an update on the status of the high-stakes testing rebellion around the nation:

The National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing has more than 13,500 individual and almost 450 organizational endorsers. It calls on the U.S. Congress and Administration “to overhaul [NCLB,] reduce the testing mandates, promote multiple forms of evidence of student learning and school quality in accountability, and not mandate any fixed role for the use of student test scores in evaluating educators.” The Pennsylvania School Boards Association as well as individual boards in Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, Virginia endorsed it. Florida activists adopted their own versions, and the Florida School Board Association passed a variation at its annual conference in the spring. The National Parent Teacher Association said the resolution is consistent with its policy positions. Regional groups continue to announce new initiatives based on the Resolution, including the Massachusetts group Citizens for Public Schools.

The Texas school board resolution has been endorsed by more than 830 school districts representing more than 4.3 million – 88% - of all Texas public school students.

Top-down testing mandates, in large part, drove Chicago teachers to strike. The teachers’ arguments were bolstered by 88 researchers from 16 Chicago-area universities who had signed an open letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel opposing the city’s plan for using student test scores to evaluate teachers and principals. The letter said, “The new evaluation system… centers on misconceptions about student growth, with potentially negative impact on the education of Chicago’s children.” More than 1,100 New York researchers endorsed a similar letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

A letter protesting New York State’s teacher evaluation policy and its reliance on student test scores has been signed by 1,512 principals from urban, suburban and rural schools, more than one-third of all New York principals.

The nation’s second largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, unanimously adopted a resolution at its annual convention saying the focus on standardized testing has undermined education. The National Education Association has approved similar resolutions in the past.

The Niagara (NY) Regional Parent Teacher Association passed an emergency resolution in late September. It says, “The intent of this resolution is to ask the State Education Department to suspend its testing program until such time as it can create a new one that reliably measures educational progress without harming children and lowering the quality of education.” The resolution will be submitted to the New York State PTA convention in November.

Parent groups in a number of states, including Colorado, California and New York, that helped parents opt their children out of last spring’s tests are planning to continue and expand their boycotts.

It’s important to note that we also some parental pushback during the recent Chicago teachers’ strike. It became clear that, in spite of the rhetoric that fills talk radio and editorial pages, most parents don’t have animosity toward their children’s teachers. On the fifth day of the Chicago strike, The Chicago Tribune reported that a “poll for Capital Fax by We Ask America found 66 percent of parents with children in Chicago Public Schools supported the strike.” This was a surprise to many, including Mayor Emanuel, who assumed most parents would embrace more standardized testing and side against the teachers. But they didn’t. Parents and teachers joined voices in saying, “enough”. We’ve got to keep saying it until everyone hears us.

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