Wherever we find signs of bravery and intelligence in education, we must celebrate it.
The school committee of Taunton, Massachusetts, took the following wise action. It
“voted unanimously to send a letter to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education opposing the amount of testing that school districts will be required to implement with the adoption of the Common Core Standards. The School Committee also requests that someone from DESE come and explain how the district is to implement this mandate. Where would the funds come from? The training? And most importantly, discuss how this will impact time on learning.
Currently, the 50 states combined spend approximately $1.3 billion on standardized testing. This money is spent on the development, publication, administration, and scoring of standardized tests that are required by the federal government. Is that really where we want to be putting $1.3 billion of the education money targeted for our public schools?
The money could be better spent on lowering class sizes, instructional technology, and innovative ideas that our students could benefit from.”
It will take wisdom, knowledge, experience, and courage to save education in this country.
Hats off to the Taunton School Committee.
Let us find many more like them and celebrate them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bravo to the Taunton school committee! You are wise and courageous.
I wish my school committee had the courage to stand up for our kids and our schools!
In order to be capable and engaged members of our community, our kids will need more than the ability to recall facts from their test. Critical thinking skills and the ability to work with others are vital skills.
Great news about Taunton schl comm, brave leadership going against the Rhee Blitzkrieg, impt to inform us of opposition in all corners to rally teachers and parents to join the fight. Would be great to invite opposition leaders defending pub ed to a conf/rally/media event in a place like Chicago where tchrs union is standing up to mayor, secy of ed and pres. Identify all the opposition ledaers we can, bring them together to plan next moves in concert, give them a national platform to counter the enormous media assets of Rhee, Gates, Broad, Walton, and Anschutz with his propaganda film Won’t Back Down, an ominous attack using high production values and stars from Hollywood.