Ask your Senator to support the Tester Amendment
Support the Tester Amendment for Grade Span Testing
Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) understands public education. Tester is a former public school music teacher as well as a former school board member. Senator Tester served as a Big Sandy Public Schools Board of Trustees member for a decade before moving on to the Montana Senate.
Most importantly, he understands that the federal mandate for annual testing, first implemented under No Child Left Behind and now maintained in the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, "eats up valuable classroom time and requires teachers to ‘teach to the test.'"
That is why Senator Tester has proposed an amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act, called the Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act(also called the Tester Amendment). The amendment removes the federal mandate for annual testing and replaces it with grade span testing, which is testing once in Elementary, once in Middle, and once in High School.
The Every Child Achieves Act has not been scheduled for discussion or a vote in the full Senate, but it has passed unanimously out of Committee and may head to the full Senate in early June. That is why it is critical to contact your Senatorsnow and urge them to cosponsor and support the Tester Amendment.
NPE has made it easy for you to tell your Senators you want to see this common sense reform to federal education policy on standardized testing. Click Here to go to: Ask your Senator to support the Tester Amendment – The Network For Public Education:
Act now to let your Senator know you want to see the end of annual testing.
Senator Jon Tester has drafted an Amendment, called the Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act (also called the Tester Amendment), which eliminates the federal mandate for annual testing and replaces it with pre NCLB grade span testing.
NPE believes that a return to grade span testing will significantly reduce the burden annual high stakes testing currently places on our public schools.
A return to grade span testing and elimination of accountability measures tied to standardized tests will allow the nation’s public schools to reallocate resources where they are most desperately needed, and provide students with the rich educational opportunities that have been eroded during the NCLB era. A decrease in federally mandated testing will still provide policy makers sufficient data to evaluate progress in our nation’s schools and will not hinder the federal government’s crucial role in ensuring all students receive a quality and equitable education.
Please write your Senators today, and ask them not only to support the Tester Amendment,but to sign on to the legislation as a co-sponsor.
With just a few clicks you can do your part to put an end to annual standardized testing.
#NPEChicago Conference Photo Gallery and Videos
"...the wonderful Newark students presented me with a selfie stick (lots of selfies all weekend!). After showing me how to operate it, Tanasia Brown asked me to show her that I could do it myself. I knew I was in the presence of a real teacher!" - NPE President Diane Ravitch
NPE 2015 Conference Photo Gallery
Whether you were able to attend #NPEChicago or not, we guarantee you will enjoy perusing our 2015 Conference Photo Gallery. The photos are a living document of the solidarity and camaraderie that was evident throughout the event, which was so beautifully put into words by attendee Nancy Flanagan.
So it was gratifying and heartwarming (using those phrases in the deepest possible sense) to have seen firsthand that the movement is robustly alive, at theNetwork for Public Education (NPE) conference in Chicago, last weekend. And when I say "movement," what I mean is this: People, like me, who have no particular resources or organizational funding/backing, who got on a plane to be in a room with those like-minded compadres--because they're terrified that America might lose public education. People who think it's not too late. People willing to stake their professional energy on doing right by all kids, keeping democratic equality as critical and central goal of the education system.
The gallery also depicts the work that was done that weekend in Chicago, with plenty of images of panelists and attendees alike fully engaged in the fight to protect and preserve public education.
NPE 2015 Conference Videos
Attendees and non-attendees alike will also greatly benefit from a visit to our 2015 Conference Videos page, which now houses all of the keynote presentations as well as several of the most popular and powerful panels. This page is being updated regularly with new videos, so please continue to check back and make sure to share the page with your networks.
We are taking great care to archive the most important lessons learned at #NPEChicago so we can continue to grow and build our movement.
