Ann Cook, executive director and co-founder of the New York State Performance Standards Consortium, and Phyllis Tashlik, director of the Consortium’s Center for Inquiry in Teaching and Learning, argue in this article in the New York Daily News that the spring testing should be canceled. The Consortium, a group of a few dozen high schools in New York, has an exemption from most state testing and has produced better academic outcomes (graduation rates, college entry, college retention) than the other public schools in the city with similar students. My guess is that they could make a powerful argument that standardized testing is unnecessary and wasteful.
Across the country, national and local groups — including the majority of parents — are calling on the federal government to waive standardized testing requirements for states in the spring. New York should be one of the leaders of that effort. Instead, it remains one of only 10 states to link standardized exams, in this case Regents exams, to high school graduation.
We’re in the throes of a pandemic with no consistency to school attendance, WiFi reception, or access to CONTINUE READING: Stop the Spring Tests! Support the Children! | Diane Ravitch's blog