Louisville Educators and School Board Work Together to Reduce Testing
When the Jefferson County Board of Education Kentucky hosted the first of 10 town hall meetings beginning in Louisville back in May, members were looking for feedback on which “big rock” education policies to address over the next five years.
“We wanted to learn from educators, parents, students, and community members what to continue, what to change, and what to stop,” says Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) and a member of the district’s Strategy Work Group that coordinated the meetings. “A pretty consistent message was to cut back on the volume of testing.”
With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)currently being rewritten in Congress and set for a vote possibly this session, school districts across the country are assessing the need to address over-testing and a one-size-fits all punitive culture that is a hallmark of the prior reauthorization known as No Child Left behind (NCLB). Overwhelmingly, educators, parents and policymakers alike are demanding that students receive more time to learn.
At Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), McKim and other members of the work group will report their findings from the public meetings at the next board meeting November 9. Aspects of the report will be voted on, adopted and built into Vision 2020, the district’s document that will be the basis for targeting resources and strategies for everything from kindergarten readiness and early childhood literacy to college- and career-readiness.
“One of those big rocks is to broaden assessment of student learning beyond what’s currently covered by standardized tests to include capacities and dispositions – sometimes called soft skills – essential to 21st century success,” says David Jones Jr., board chair.
Jones says policies involving professional development, classroom time management, and other big-picture issues listed in the work group’s report will be discussed at the next board meeting. Of all policies included in the report, Louisville Educators and School Board Work Together to Reduce Testing - NEA Today: