The White House and the Department of Education on Oct. 24 released a new “Testing Action Plan,” which acknowledges that the obsession with high-stakes testing has gone too far and admits administration policies have helped drive the problem.
Among the features included in the plan is a statement that no standardized test should ever be given solely for educator evaluation, as well as a commitment to working with states and districts to eliminate such tests. The plan was unveiled the same day the Council of the Great City Schools released a report illustrating how much testing was encroaching on teaching and learning in today’s schools. Based only on the narrowest universe—standardized tests required by law—students face about 112 examinations throughout their preK-12 years, or approximately eight tests per year. “The current assessment regime needs to be revised,” the report concludes.
AFT President Randi Weingarten welcomed the Obama administration’s course change as “a huge step,” and one that “happened because educators and parents spoke up until the White House listened.” The administration has promised new guidance on testing by January, and Weingarten says it is critical that the process of crafting a solution include the voices of parents, students and teachers—the stakeholders who first identified the problem. (The AFT is collecting signatures on a petition asking the Department of Education and the White House to involve parents, students and educators as they prepare their new testing guidelines.)
“The Department of Education can make a big difference right away,” Weingarten says. “It’s up to Congress to fix No Child Left Behind and get rid of the worst impacts of testing, [but] the department’s policies—from Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind waivers to impending teacher prep policy—play a significant role in driving the testing fixation, and they can play a big role in changing the role of tests while we work with Congress to fix the law” so that testing can “help inform instruction, not drive instruction.”
[Mike Rose, AFT press release]
– See more at: http://www.aft.org/news/white-house-changes-course-testing#sthash.xyUtXqtG.dpuf