What we have learned after thirty years or more of standardized testing, is that the tests mirror family income education: they measure gaps but do nothing to close them; our kids spend (waste) too much time preparing to take the tests; the test results are massively misused for rewards and punishments instead of for diagnostic purposes; the testing industry is rich and powerful and hires lobbyists to protect its hegemony.

Make 2014 the year we opt out. Do not let your child take the state tests: do not let your child take field tests; do not let your child take practice tests.

Seek out information about your state’s laws by writing Peg Robertson of United Opt Out.

Here is a recent post by education activist Angela Engel of Colorado:

In the sixteen years since I first administered the CSAP test to my fourth grade students at Rock Ridge Elementary School, here’s what we’ve learned:

Wealth and poverty are the greatest indicators of test performance

High-stakes testing correlates to segregation

High-stakes testing increases inequities in opportunities and resources and further harms low-income children and youth

Test scores are not an accurate indicator of a student’s knowledge or potential

Emphasis on standardized testing kills creativity, imagination, and innovation

Commercial tests are more expensive and are far less informative than classroom assessments collected over time and evaluated by professional teachers

High-stakes testing does not improve schools, teachers or students

High-stakes testing has cost billions of dollars with no return on those investments

Standardized tests and the stakes and labels associated with these tests are destructive to children and youth and fail to honor their unique ways of thinking and learning

Over these many years, I have worked to challenge high-stakes standardized testing. I have published a book and articles, written legislation, lobbied on behalf of kids, spoken to audiences, organized and educated. I’ve come to understand that the public’s collective will and their intolerance for injustice is the greatest agent of change. We can still try and change the laws, we can continue to inform the people, and we can also refuse to conform. We can live by a different set of rules; standards that respect our children; choices that are responsible to our spending; and decisions that heal the opportunity divide and lead to cooperation.
The Coalition for Better Education is beginning their annual Colorado campaign to educate parents and students about their rights to refuse the test and OPT OUT. All money goes directly to billboards. In the words of Don Perl, “no amount is too small.”

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Dear Colleagues:
I have randomly gone through the names of those who have been strong activists in the past for our billboard campaign to inform parents of their rights to exempt their children from the fraud of high stakes standardized testing. As most of you know, we have advertised on Colorado highways since 2005 to raise awareness of the boondoggle of CSAP (now TCAP) and each year more and more parents have opted their children out of the tests.

This is a critical year for voices raised against the corporate takeover. They are more forceful than ever. Consider the latest publications – Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error, Jim Horn’s The Mismeasure of Education. The Progressive has a new website exposing the corporatization of public education, http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org. The strike of the Chicago Teachers’ Union a year ago had much to do with raising awareness of the privatization of what is a public trust – public education. Our mission has also been included in the wonderful collection of stories in Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education by Professors Nancy Schniedewind and Mara Sapon-Shevin.

I have just signed a contract with Mile High Outdoor Advertising to put two billboards up on the Eastern Slope. We will have these boards from January through March and I am attaching two photos of last year’s boards. Those two boards will cost us $2,200. We have a bank account in the Weld Schools Credit Union which now has about $500 in it. So, we need to raise something like $1,700 to cover the cost of the boards. We have no administrative costs whatsoever. So, however you could spread the word, however you could contribute to this campaign will be very much appreciated. Any contribution at all will help move us toward our goal.

Checks go to:

The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
2424 22nd Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631

In appreciation and solidarity,

Don Perl
The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
http://www.thecbe.org

Please forward this newsletter to your friends and ask them to visit http://www.AngelaEngel.com.

Angela Engel, 8131 S. Marion Ct., Centennial, CO 80122