Eight K-12 Education Questions Every Candidate Needs to Answer
Education Policy Must Be Addressed
The subject of K-12 education was given little attention in the 2012 Presidential campaign. Mitt Romney issued a white paper supporting privatization, and President Obama stood behind his Race to the Top program, which has promoted high-stakes testing and charter schools. But neither candidate questioned the direction in which the nation is headed for our nation’s children, our educators, and our public schools.
We must not let that happen again in 2016.
We propose the following K-12 education agenda for 2016, and we encourage members of the media to question candidates for the presidency on these issues to determine their views.
TESTING: Will you end the federal mandate for annual high-stakes testing?
- We oppose annual standardized testing. No high performing nation in the world tests every child every year. The hundreds of millions (or billions) of dollars and the weeks of instructional time now devoted to preparing to take these tests and to administering them is a misuse of money and time.
- We oppose high-stakes testing, in which test results are used to evaluate teachers, grade schools, award bonuses, fire staff, or close schools. Putting so much emphasis on bubble tests of questionable educational value and quality encourages teaching to the test, narrowing the curriculum only to what is tested, gaming the system, cheating, and distorts the purpose of education.
- We believe that teachers should make their own tests, not be billion-dollar corporate conglomerates. Teachers know what they taught and what their students need to learn. We oppose the use of standardized testing in the early grades, and we oppose their misuse and overuse in grades 3-12. These tests should be used only for their diagnostic value in helping teachers understand what children need. The current Common Core tests provide very little useful information. Those who wish to compare the test scores of states can refer to the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which has been gathering this information since 1992.
- We support assessments that measure what was taught, through projects, portfolios, teacher-designed tests and activities in which students can demonstrate what they have learned.
- We support the evaluation of teachers by professionals, not by unreliable test scores.
SCHOOL CLOSURES: Will you put an end to school closures based on test scores?
- We oppose the closing of public schools based on test scores because by and large standardized test scores are a measure of family income, rather than the quality of the schools. We must address the issues of poverty at the same time we are improving our schools. We support helping schools that are struggling by providing additional resources not by closing or privatizing them. School closures have primarily targeted neighborhood schools in African American and Latino communities, damaging the fabric of those communities.
PRIVATIZATION: Will you put an end to the privatization of public education?
- We support public education because it is a pillar of our democratic society. Public schools should not be outsourced, privatized, or given away Eight K-12 Education Questions Every Candidate Needs to Answer – The Network For Public Education: