This is the weekly roundup of testing resistance news from Fairtest, which has been fighting the misuse and overuse of standardized testing for decades:
Any notion that the new federal education law would slow the grassroots testing resistance and reform movement should be put to rest by even a quick skim of this week’s headlines. From Alaska to Florida and Maine to California parents, educators and community activists are escalating pressure on state and local policy makers to reduce testing volume, eliminate high stakes and support better forms of assessment.
National How Should Educators React to New, Federal ESSA?
https://dianeravitch.net/2016/01/20/john-thompson-how-should-educators-react-to-essa/
Multiple States GED Lowers Passing Score, Tens of Thousand More Young People May Receive Credentials
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/high_school_and_beyond/2016/01/ged_passing_score_to_be_lowered.html
Alabama Test-Based “Merit Pay” Has Serious Flaws
http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2016/01/23/teacher-merit-pay-bill-has-serious-flaws/
Alaska State Likely to Dump New Standardized Test
http://juneauempire.com/state/2016-01-25/state-likely-dump-new-standardized-test
Alaska Why Administer Tests Whose Results Are Not Meaningful?
http://peninsulaclarion.com/opinion/2016-01-21/assessments-must-be-meaningful
California Feds Urged Not to Intrude on State’s Assessment Reforms
http://edsource.org/2016/federal-officials-urged-not-to-intrude-on-states-school-reform-essa-nclb-lcff/93632
California Students Stymied by Exit Exam May Now Qualify for Diplomas
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/01/22/students-stymied-by-exit-exam-may-qualify-for-diplomas-but-outreach-spotty
Connecticut The Lies Behind Making the SAT a Mandatory 11th Grade Test
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Wendy-Lecker-The-lies-in-the-new-SAT-6777613.php
Connecticut Educators Seek Moratorium on Test-Based Teacher Evaluations
http://m.newstimes.com/news/article/Teacher-want-evaluation-system-changed-6782229.php
Florida Legislature’s Testing Proposals Are “Accoutabaloney”
https://accountabaloney.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/sb1360-baloney-on-rye-is-still-full-of-baloney/
Florida House Minority Leader Urges Parents to Consider Opting Their Children Out of State Tests
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-house-democratic-leader-doubles-down-on-opting-out-of-state-tests/2262393
Florida My Son Should Dream, Not Have Testing Nightmares
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article55928525.html
Georgia Governor Backs Off on Plan for Test-Based Teacher Pay
http://flagpole.com/news/capitol-impact/2016/01/20/deal-backs-off-plan-to-pay-teachers-based-on-test-scores
Illinois Grassroots Opt-Out Campaign Derails Common Core Test
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/article/20160121/NEWS/160129808
Indiana Governor Signs Bill Holding Schools, Teachers Harmless for Flawed State Test Scores
http://www.journalreview.com/news/article_2c0dcb08-c078-11e5-a9e6-ffd8a5733336.html
Indiana Trial Run of New Test Exam Reveals Technical Problems
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2016/01/20/school-districts-report-issues-istep-readiness-test/79087824/
Maine What Will Replace Smarter Balanced Testing?
https://www.centralmaine.com/2016/01/24/the-vital-question-of-school-testing-in-maine/
Maryland Legislative Leaders Plan to Act on School Testing Reform
http://www.wboc.com/story/31003617/md-legislative-teaders-plan-to-act-on-school-testing
Michigan Teachers, Students Held Hostage By Endless Tests
http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2016/01/25/teachers-students-held-hostage-endless-tests/79313456/
Montana Senator Urges U.S. Ed. Department to Encourage States to Reduce Testing
http://www.scribd.com/doc/296018172/Tester-s-letter-to-Acting-Secretary-King
Nebraska New Federal Education Law a Welcome Change from “No Child” Mandates
http://www.theindependent.com/opinion/another_opinion/new-education-law-a-welcome-change/article_01edc822-c254-11e5-b760-ffe17a5094e1.html
New Jersey Governor Signs Law Requiring Parental Pre-Notification of Testing Schedule, Assessment Details
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2014/Bills/A5000/4901_I1.HTM
New Mexico Legislature Preparing for Fight Over Third-Grade Retention Proposal
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/legislature-preparing-for-another-fight-about-third-grade-retention/article_fe979832-17bf-5744-abfb-f2f9c1e53b8c.html
New York Hundreds of Teachers Received Erroneous Scores Linked to Student Tests
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/nyregion/over-200-educators-in-new-york-receive-erroneous-scores-linked-to-student-performance.html
North Carolina Education Advocates Call for End to Test-Based Teacher Evaluation
http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2016/01/25/education-advocates-call-for-end-to-test-based-teaching-evaluation/
Ohio Consider Source of School Grades
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2016/01/21/1-consider-source-of-school-system-ratings.html
Oregon Open Letter Urges Supers and School Boards Not to Interfere with Opt Outs
http://oregonsaveourschools.blogspot.com/2016/01/an-open-letter-to-oregon.html
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Governor Joins Legislators in Supporting Exit Exam Requirement Delay
http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/wolf_on_board_with_delaying_gr.html#incart_river_index
Pennsylvania Grad Test Delay is Well Justified
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2016/01/25/Justified-delay-Pennsylvania-s-Keystone-exams-need-more-work/stories/201601310186
Rhode Island Panel Examining Alternatives to Testing
http://www.ricentral.com/kent_county_daily_times/news/local_news/serpa-panel-analyzing-graduation/article_ba444c0c-c38f-11e5-abd7-77d59422c652.html
Tennessee Bill Would Let Parents Review Questions and Answers From Their Kids State Tests
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2016/01/22/bills-would-let-parents-see-kids-answers-state-tests/79053996/
Tennessee Teachers Could Get a Break From Some Testing Pressures
http://www.commercialappeal.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-teachers-could-get-a-break-on-testing-pressure-29f267ab-13fc-2390-e053-0100007fa7e6-366377191.html
Vermont State Seeks New Way to Evaluate Schools Under Revised Federal Education Law
http://digital.vpr.net/post/state-grapples-new-us-education-law#stream/0
ACT/SAT New College Admissions Study Says SAT Should Be Optional
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0120/Harvard-study-says-SATs-should-be-optional.-Here-s-why
ACT/SAT Do Admissions Exams Predict Anything Colleges Need to Know
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christeare/2016/01/22/test-optional-colleges-focus-on-what-matters-most/#36efcd567ffc
ACT/SAT Siena Heights University to Drop Admissions Test Requirements
http://www.lenconnect.com/news/20160123/siena-heights-university-to-drop-actsat-requirements
SAT Integrity Falls Victim To Cheating Scandal
http://www.barrons.com/articles/sat-integrity-falls-victim-to-china-cheating-scandal-1453713163?mod=BOL_hp_highlight_5
Overcoming the Pressure to Test
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/01/overcoming_the_pressure_o_test.html
Let’s Replace Transcripts, Tests and Grades With Portfolios
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2016/01/lets_replace_transcripts_with_.html
Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“. . . and support better forms of assessment.”
The only forms of assessment (besides those used to diagnose a special need) that can be (but may not necessarily be) valid are those developed at the classroom level which are used by the student, parent and teacher in a dialogic manner to discuss the ongoing learning of/by the student. Anything else is a waste of time, energy and resources.
Yes, it really is that simple.
Thanks Duane, that’s a saver!
Hundreds of teachers in NY received erroneous scores linked to rests. Not the whole truth. Actually 100% of teachers received scores that are erroneous manufactured nonsense. No amount of fudging by psychometrician can make something that is invalid, valid. Does anyone know when the Lederman case is due to expose this capricious folly called VAM?
Opt out! It is the silver bullet to dracula. That is the only option when education is governed by politics instead of best practice.
Teachers in NYS are all victims of institutional fraud. Plain and simple. Hopefully the Lederman ruling will send this policy to the ash heap of failed ideas.
Unfortunately, our Dracula here is going to be a little more difficult to dispatch than the Transylvanian version.
One of the biggest mythologies on our side of the Ed reform war is that successfully attacking and destroying the testing culture and policies of the reformers will dismantle the reform agenda. The logic being that the pseudo-science of testing is the basis for reformers’ “data” to prove public schools and their teachers are the problem. Remove the test culture, dismantle the reformers. The problem with this, unfortunately, is that the reform agenda can stand it and in fact is clearer than we are on the whole testing thing: the reformers are quite clear that the “data” based testing culture they propose and institute is a POLITICAL policy, not an educational one. Their goal is not testing, it’s privatizing. Sure, opt-out can put a dent in the facade of their testing culture, but it will not end the reformers’ march. Opt out will not be as decisive against the reformers as we hope. It turns out the reformers will be all too willing to approach public school privatization from other angles. In fact, that work is being done for them.
The Friedrich case, which is among the Supreme Court cases that we can predict the outcome on with a strong certainty, is, in fact, going to do a huge amount of the reformers work for them. In one decision it will do more than the entire scope of reformer testing culture and VAM thus far. It will knee-cap, substantially, organized teachers and will probably be the single thing that later historians will look to in order to articulate why the Ed reform movement won.
Lets not forget, testing and VAM and all that was and remains a TOOL that the reformers are using to achieve their GOAL, which is to eliminate a hurdle towards privatization….organized teachers. Tools are inevitably sacrificial and disposable. Goals are not. The Supreme Court will be doing the work of ALOT of nonsense testing and “data” this upcoming June. Lets understand that killing the testing culture, insofar as that is possible or even probable, is NOT going to kill the reform movement. The work-around is already working for the reformers.
As much as I support opt-out, they aren’t the magic bullet. Friedrichs, in a large way, has already rendered opt out as a little bit of a golden oldie.
Killing the testing culture is great, but it’s just a battle, and one that the reformers can afford to lose.
We aren’t winning.
The future of scalable, positive ROI, long term privatization is also doomed to FAIL. It may take a generation to fully rebound. but the fundamental tenets public education will outlast them all.
Rocked by scandal and unsupported by the most important constituent group (parents), their list of FAILED ideas grows longer by the day:
Common Core
RTTT
NCLB
PARCC/SBAC/Pearson testing
VAM
APPR
Charters
Vouchers
No excuses discipline
CBE/DL
Keep the faith NYT. The darkest hour is always right before the dawn.
LOVE this wonderfully on the mark term. Florida Legislature’s Testing Proposals Are “Accoutabaloney”
Accoutabaloney–good one for the National Press Club.
I know many state vie for top honors in imposing standardized tests, but I think Florida here gets the Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! Award for threatening an inappropriate typical high school placement for a non-verbal child with cerebral palsy because of testing.
“Maddy is required to take State Standardized testing against her family’s will. She is a 15 year old diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Maddy is non-verbal and uses an iPad to communicate.
Maddy previously attended a local elementary public school that has services for children with special needs. When she progressed to middle school the local school was not able to accommodate her unique needs. As a result Maddie was sent to a public school for children with special needs which requires over two hours of travel a day.
Maddy’s family has been informed that she will no longer be able to attend the school for children with special needs if she does not participate in state testing. Authorities have stated she will be sent to a typical public high school if the testing is not completed.
This is last week’s Fairtest news, on the other hand.
Testing Resistance & Reform News: January 13 – 19, 2016
Submitted by fairtest on January 19, 2016 – 1:06pm news other
As the first of this issue’s headlines makes clear, momentum is rapidly building across the U.S. for major assessment reform campaigns. The stories that follow — from 15 states in a holiday-shortened week of news clips — show the breadth and depth of grassroots activity.
National Opt Out Activists Aim to Build on Momentum in State Campaigns
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/01/14/opt-out-activists-aim-to-bu…
National Schools Push for More Sensible Testing
http://www.districtadministration.com/article/outlook-schools-push-sensi…
Please study the second link in their list.
http://www.fairtest.org/testing-resistance-reform-news-january-13-19-2016
NYS teacher, I COMPLETELY agree! Privatization is the goal and testing is one tool. Opt out is the can disrupt use of that tool and needs to double this year.
Also noncompliance needs to happen by teachers and administrators. Maybe a wildcat strike on testing day would shut it down, but NYSUT has no will.
As they use tools to destroy public education, we need to find ways to render them useless.