This is a surprising story. State Commissioner Deborah Gist and other state leaders will review whether there is too much testing in the schools of Rhode Island. This is a battle that the Providence Student Union has been waging for the past two years. They held rallies and staged political events to call attention to the state’s testing program. They criticized high stakes testing, standardized testing, and too much testing. They fought Gist’s and the state board’s plan to use a standardized test as a high school graduation requirement. The kids knew that many of their classmates would not pass because of the nature of the test itself. It is too soon to say they have won, but not too soon to say that they changed the public debate in Rhode Island.

“In a letter to school superintendents, Katherine E. Sipala, president of the Rhode Island School Superintendents’ Association, and Gist wrote:

”Over the past year or more, many of us have heard from some students, teachers, and parents who expressed their concerns about over-testing in our schools. We share their concerns, and we want to take action on this matter. None of us wants to test students too much, and each of us can consider ways to streamline the assessment process, to eliminate assessments that do not advance teaching and learning, and to ensure that we use assessments to help us make good decisions about instruction. If assessments do not give us information that informs instruction, we should not administer those assessments.”

By the way, if you live in District 4 in Rhode Island, one of the leaders of the Providence Student Union is running for state representative. Aaron Regunberg deserves your support. He is a thoughtful, hard-working, dedicated young man. Just what we need to improve the politics of our nation.

If you live in