AFT Executive Council Recommends a Resolution Against High-Stakes Testing
Saying that “America’s public school accountability system must be re-examined and rebuilt,” the executive counsel of the American Federation of Teachers has recommend its own resolution against “the current test-and-punish accountability model.”
All children deserve a rich, meaningful public education that prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges that await them as they become contributing members of a democratic society. Growing our nation’s future citizens and workers is a serious undertaking that calls for a thoughtful focus on teaching and learning. Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, the growing fixation on high-stakes testing has undermined that focus, putting at grave risk our students’ learning and their ability to meet the demands of the 21st century economy and fulfill their personal goals.
The current generation of low-level, high-stakes tests—and their extreme misuse as a result of