We Shall Overcome…Our Lack of Standardized Tests!?
Civil Rights groups have long championed the needs of people of color, women and minorities.
Segregated schools, voting rights, police brutality – all of these have been the subject of long and brutal fights for equality.
Perhaps the strangest turn in 2015 has been the fight for standardized testing.
Organizations that you’d expect to see fighting against racism have been clamoring for access to multiple choice bubble exams.
Organizations that you’d expect to see fighting against racism have been clamoring for access to multiple choice bubble exams.
That’s right. Organizations that you’d expect to see fighting against racism have been clamoring for access to multiple choice bubble exams.
In fact, the Democrats have used this as an excuse for their failed attempts to keep the much maligned Test and Punish policies of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
The law – currently called No Child Left Behind (NCLB) – is a testing corporation’s dream filled with policies that have been failing our childrenfor 13 years. Unsurprisingly, teachers, parents and students are demanding relief.
But do Civil Rights groups who fought against unfair testing as a prerequisite to vote now really demand unfair testing as a prerequisite for a high school diploma?
The answer is yes and no.
SOME Civil Rights groups have demanded more testing, and others have demanded LESS.
The Journey for Justice Alliance (JJA), a group made up of 38 organizations of Black and Brown parents and students in 23 states, wrote Congress an open letter in July asking for an end to high stakes testing. And the JJA wasn’t alone. The alliance was joined by 175 other national and local grassroots community, youth and civil rights organizations who signed on to the letter to “…call on Fight for Standarded Testing:
