Tell Congress: Investigate the Tests!
It’s far from a secret to most teachers, students and parents that policies pushing high-stakes testing in primary schools are deeply flawed. Testing and test preparation has pushed out too much learning time in too many struggling schools nationwide.This week, our friends at the Network for Public Education(NPE) are pushing for Congressional hearings to investigate the harmful effects of political leaders’ obsession with high-stakes testing. This is an important push – and we’re proud to join NPE in calling for everyone concerned to tell their representatives to at the very least hold hearings to take a look at the issue.
For our part, we’re concerned that low-quality, mass-produced high-stakes tests are being used as a political tool to justify pre-determined policy decisions that have little to do with student learning. Across the country, low test scores are being cited to justify mass firings, school closures, and charter takeovers. Tests are supposed to be a diagnostic tool that educators use to assess students’ progress and identify areas where they should invest more time and effort. The best assessments are those created by educators and tailored to the learning happening in the classroom—not tests created by faraway corporations, unconnected to things happening in the classroom, scored by…well, just about anyone, and returned long after those students have left the their previous year’s class. So why have commercial tests become such a dominant feature of the schooling experience?
One cynical-but-obvious answer? Revolving door politics. From the cozy relationships between the US Department of Education and testing companies like Pearson, to the US Department of Education’s complete lack of transparency about how important education policy decisions are made, there’s reason to wonder just who is calling the shots that impact our students and communities every day. We’ve already asked the Department of Education to unveil its ties to for-profit institutions, and we’re still fighting an uphill battle for answers.
In the meantime, it’s important that we continue to push legislators to look at rampant high-stakes testing and hold the Department of Education accountable. If you haven’t already, sign on to join NPE’s Thunderclapdemanding Congressional hearings into high-stakes testing. And please make time to be a part of tonight’s Twitter storm, happening from 8 to 10 PM Eastern Time, calling on federal legislators to hold hearings into this national problem.