Testing in schools. It's going to get worse.
[Editor's Note: the following letter — "Testing in schools: It's going to get worse" — was sent to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, October 14, 2010, and is published here for the benefit of our readers in Chicago and across the USA.]
The Rochester Area Coalition for Common Sense held a rally to protest the excessive amount of testing children are subjected to under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) ("Group Rallies for Education Reform," October 14). The US Department of Education has no plans to reduce testing. In fact, they have announced that they will vastly increase the amount of testing done.
NCLB tested reading and math once a year. According to the Department of Education's "Blueprint for Reform," the new tests will include "interim" tests given throughout the year, and it is likely that major tests will be given in the fall and spring, in order to measure growth. The Blueprint also strongly recommends testing other subjects as well as reading and math.
There is no evidence that increasing standardized testing improves learning. Billions will be wasted in useless efforts to measure achievement, not to improve it.
Stephen Krashen
THE FOLLOWING IS THE ROCHESTER ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 14, 2010 IN THE DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101014/NEWS01/10140351/Group-rallies-for-education-reform
Maxim Nimeh thinks he spends too much time at school getting ready for standardized tests.
He believes he would learn more — and like school a lot better — if more subjects used hands-on activities and experiments the way his science class does.
So when his mother, a former teacher, offered to take him to a rally downtown Wednesday to demand changes in education, Maxim, a fifth-grader at Brighton's French Road Elementary School, picked up his sign and hit the street with about 100 other demonstrators to get out his message. "It's a lot of pressure," said 10-year-old Maxim of the standardized tests. "I get stressed out by it."
The Rochester Area Coalition for Common Sense in Education organized the rally to protest what they say are ineffective reforms that are hurting the school system.
Organizers believe the federal government needs to overhaul the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top laws, which use standardized tests to gauge school and teacher performance. They also aim to end the disparities in education programs for city children and restore the joy of learning.
The rally underscores a national debate about education reform that has gained attention in the past few weeks, in part because of the release of a new movie, Waiting for Superman, which explores problems with today's public education system. Demonstrators at Wednesday's event said the movie glorifies education reforms that are not working, and said they will push for changes they deem more effective.
About 100 people marched from the Hochstein School of Music and Dance to the Federal Building, where some participants played drums and harmonicas while waiting to hear speakers including former interim Rochester School District Superintendent Bill Cala and school board President Malik Evans. "We are the revolution," a group of School Without Walls students cheered as they passed a television camera.
Earlier in the day, members of the groups Metro Justice and Alliance for Quality Education gathered outside the City School District headquarters on West Broad Street to protest a state proposal to eliminate remedial services to some struggling students. The City School District plans to continue offering the extra help to those students, even if the state doesn't require it.
