Please join us! Over 60 groups dedicated to education, children, and civil rights have joined with the Network for Public Education to oppose annual high-stakes testing. No high-performing nation in the world tests every child every year as we do. It is a waste of instructional time and a waste of money.
Add your organization’s name by contacting the Network for Public Education:
NPE Forms Coalition of Education and Civil Rights Groups to Oppose High-Stakes Testing
June 18, 2015 Action Alerts, Activism, Civil Rights, Testing / Opting Out
We, the below undersigned organizations, oppose high-stakes testing because we believe these tests are causing harm to students, to public schools, and to the cause of educational equity. High-stakes standardized tests, rather than reducing the opportunity gap, have been used to rank, sort, label, and punish Black and Latino students, and recent immigrants to this country.
We oppose high-stakes tests because:
There is no evidence that these tests contribute to the quality of education, have led to improved educational equity in funding or programs, or have helped close the “achievement gap.”
High-stakes testing has become intrusive in our schools, consuming huge amounts of time and resources, and narrowing instruction to focus on test preparation.
Many of these tests have never been independently validated or shown to be reliable and/or free from racial and ethnic bias.
High-stakes tests are being used as a political weapon to claim large numbers of students are failing, to close neighborhood public schools, and to fire teachers, all in the effort to disrupt and privatize the public education system.
The alleged benefit of annual testing as mandated by No Child Left Behind was to unveil the achievement gaps, and by doing so, close them. Yet after more than a decade of high-stakes testing this has not happened. Instead, thousands of predominantly poor and minority neighborhood schools —the anchors of communities— have been closed.
As the Seattle NAACP recently stated, “Using standardized tests to label Black people and immigrants as lesser—while systematically underfunding their schools—has a long and ugly history. It is true we need accountability measures, but that should start with politicians being accountable to fully funding education and ending the opportunity gap. …The use of high-stakes tests has become part of the problem, rather than a solution.”
We agree.
Yours sincerely,
Network for Public Education
50th No More
Action Now
Alaska NAACP
Alliance for Quality Education
Badass Teachers Association
Better Georgia
Caucus of Working Educators
Chicago Teachers Union
Children Are More Than Test Scores
Citizens for Public Schools
Class Size Matters
Community Voices for Education
Concerned Parents of Franklin County, Tennessee
Croton Advocates for Public Education
Defending the Early Years
Delaware PTA
Denver Alliance for Public Education
Denver Classroom Teachers Association
ECE PolicyWorks
EmpowerEd Georgia
FairTest
First Focus Campaign for Children
HispanEduca
Indiana Coalition for Public Education
Indiana PTA
Indiana State Teachers Association
Journey for Justice
Metamorphosis Teaching Learning Communities
Montclair Cares About Schools
More Than A Score
NE Indiana Friends of Public Ed
Newark Parents Union
Newark Students Union
NJ Teacher Activist Group
NY State Allies for Public Ed
Opt Out Orlando
Oregon BATS
Oregon Save Our Schools
Oregon State NAACP
Parents Across America
Providence Students Union
Refuse of Cuyahoga County
Rethinking Schools
Save Michigan’s Public Schools
Save Our Schools March
Save Our Schools NJ
Scottsdale Parent Council
Seattle King County NAACP
Students United for Public Ed
Teachers Voice Radio
Tennessee Against Common Core
Tennessee BATS
Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence
The Coalition for Better Ed
The Opt Out Florida Network
The Plainedge Federation of Teachers
The Public Science Project at the Graduate Center, CUNY
United Opt Out
United Opt Out Michigan
Voices For Education
Waco NAACP
Washington State NAACP
We Are Camden
Young Teachers Collective
Sure would be nice to start seeing some school districts join this coalition!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
AFT Top of Utah Local 6478 is in 100% solidarity with the fight against high stakes testing. The original purpose of identifying and closing achievement gaps has long gone by the wayside. Now, the main purpose seems to be as a weapon to tear down educational professionals, tear down schools in the poorer districts, and to rake in big bucks for companies like Pearson. THAT is NOT good practice!
There needs to be a way for individuals to add their names to the list of supporters for the Network for Public Education. It is wonderful to have all the organizations on the list but not including individuals whose voices need to be heard is leaving a very large sector of people who really care about education in this country.
I entered my name. I am my own organization-The Quixotic Quest Bandwagon, hey why not!
Got this reply from NPE:
Duane,
Thanks for taking action. Now, can you spread the word to keep up our momentum?
Click here to share this form on Facebook.
Click here to share this form on Twitter.
Or you can send your friends this link: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/join-npes-national-coalition-of-education-and-civil-rights-groups-that-oppose-high-stakes-testing?source=direct_link&
Or copy and paste the email below.
Thanks!
Network for Public Education
Try adding yours moeone2015!
Very impressive coalition, impt step in consolidating power from the bottom up.
Texas Kids Can’t Wait was on the last draft I saw, at our request, but it’s not on this one or the one on your webpage. Please add us back in!
I asked several organizations to sign on, such as First Focus and Waco NAACP, which are listed.
I’ve reminded the other groups.
Thanks so much.
Sent from my iPad Bonnie A. Lesley, Ed.D. 1205 Windstone Dr. Waco, TX 76712 254-848-4483 254-855-0594 (cell)
>
Bonnie,
It will be done
Impressive list!!