Teachers, parents to protest 'toxic standardized testing'
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Teachers and parents will gather in Olympia Monday to protest what they call "toxic standardized testing."
The Teachers Association is a group of educators, parents and concerned citizens who believe that the current model of evaluation for student learning is broken. They are encouraging parents to opt-out of the testing for their students so that, little-by-little, they can bring to an end what they believe is a broken system.
"Now that we've arbitrarily raised the standards, because that's what the federal government has decided to do, the anxiety among teachers is at an all-time high and we know that kids are going to massively fail this upcoming test and there's nothing that's OK about that," Renton teacher Julianna Dauble said.
Dauble said if a group of adults took the test that will soon be given to her 5th graders, she believes most would not pass.
"When adults take this test and we don't know if we pass or not, that's a clear indicator that something is wrong and maybe we should slow down this train," Dauble said.
Some parents think that the government is on the right track with the evaluation system.
"I see value in the students being tested to see how much they are achieving or if they are not achieving, and that gives us some data that we could try to address the problems and make improvements," Joe Virzi said. "Teachers are only one piece of the puzzle, but they are a big piece and I think that that can be used to judge how well they are doing in the classroom."
Dauble said that she believes taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, but she thinks the testing model needs to be put together by educators and not people outside the classroom. She said she has no problem with accountability, but before accountability, she needs support and funding.
"Kids' basic needs are being ignored for the sake of a policy that was designed by people that never taught, ever, in a school and have fully ignored teacher's voices along the way," Dauble saidTeachers, parents to protest 'toxic standardized testing':
