Five things people say about standardized tests and the opt-out movement that aren’t true
Denisha Jones is a visiting assistant professor of early childhood education at Howard University in Washington D.C., and over the last 10 years, she has taught kindergarten, preschool, and served as a campus-based preschool director. Her research interests include service-learning, dealing with challenging behaviors, the de-professionalization of teaching, and promoting diversity in education. She is also an administrator for United Opt Out National, a non-profit organization that works to eliminate high-stakes standardized testing in public education.
In this post, a version of one that appeared in emPower Magazine on Wednesday, June, 3, Jones looks at common myths about standardized testing as well as about the growing opt-out movement, in which parents and students and teachers are refusing to take/administer high-stakes tests that they believe are being used for invalid purposes.
The introduction she wrote on her original post talks about the country’s testing obsession and about the push-back against the opt-out movement now under way by school reformers and even some civil rights organizations who have somehow equated annual standardized testing with civil rights. Jones notes that President Obama has said that he would veto any rewrite of No Child Left Behind, the current version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, that does not include annual standardized testing for accountability purposes.
Jones wrote that “most of the arguments made by those who believe in standardized testing are filled with myths about what standardized testing can and should accomplish and misconceptions about the promise of opting out.” Here she addresses these myths head-on (and you can read her entire post here):
By Denisha Jones
Here are five popular myths about standardized testing and the opt-out movement — and the facts that tell what is really happening.
Myth #1. Standardized testing is needed to address the racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.
This is the main point of 12 national civil rights group who issued a press release on May 5, 2015, denouncing “anti-testing efforts.” The group joint statement says: “For the civil rights community, data provide the power to advocate for greater equality under the law. It’s the reason we’ve fought to make sure that we’re counted equally in every aspect of American life, such as in employment, the criminal justice system, and consumer lending.” They acknowledge that high-stakes standardized testing (tests used to determine graduation or grade retention) can be misused and undermine the purpose of public education, but they counter that the today’s opt-out movement prohibits the collection of important data that will reveal the education disparities by race and class and our ability to fix what we measure. Additionally the statement takes issues with opt out activists using the Five things people say about standardized tests and the opt-out movement that aren’t true - The Washington Post:
