Teachers rally against standardized tests - NewsTimes:
Teachers rally against standardized tests
Chanting "Let us teach," about 500 educators from around the state went from their classrooms to a rally at the state Capitol in Hartford late Tuesday afternoon, urging lawmakers to reduce the number of required standardized tests given to public school students.
"It's too much," said Joe Jacobs, a teacher atRoosevelt School in Bridgeport, who ran out of fingers counting up how many tests he said his students take each year to satisfy local, state and federal requirements.
"Eleven, maybe," he said, shaking his head.
The rally comes as public school students around the state are taking the Smarter Balanced Test, or SBAC, linked to the Common Core State Standards. It is the first time the test counts. It also comes as the Connecticut Education Association pushes for a bill that would create a task force to study excessive testing. It is unclear if the bill will be acted upon.
"I would be happy if they phased SBAC out," said Sheila Cohen, president of the CEA, the state's largest teacher's union.
So would Kevin Haddad, a Danbury teacher who came with several colleagues to specifically protest the computer-based Common Core test.
"The reason I'm here today is to show that teachers are invested and interested in changing the status quo that's happening in education right now," he said on the Capitol's north lawn." Testing is not learning."
Cohen said she is not against accountability, but against testing that teachers can't use in the classroom to improve learning.
State Sen. Edwin Gomes, D-Bridgeport, was among several lawmakers to address the crowd, telling them not every child is suited for a test.
Inside the Capitol before the rally, Gwen Samuels, a Meriden mom who is head of theConnecticut Parents Union, disagreed.
"For urban communities, accountability is the bottom line," she said. Testing, she said, is the only way she can measure if the education her child is getting measures up to what suburban kids get.
Staff writer Ken Dixon contributed to this reportTeachers rally against standardized tests - NewsTimes:
