The Testing Bill of Rights aims to help move toward better, fairer, and fewer tests and reduce burden on students and educators.
Washington, D.C. — With standardized test season approaching across the United States, educators and civil rights and education groups—along with Delaware Governor Jack Markell—will hold a press call on Thursday to unveil a Testing Bill of Rights. The Testing Bill of Rights articulates a middle ground on standardized tests through which tests are in service of instruction, not the other way around. The Testing Bill of Rights aims to help move toward better, fairer, and fewer tests and reduce burden on students and educators.
The Testing Bill of Rights arrives when many parents and students have felt real frustration with school assessments. At the same time, the Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in December, retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. However, the law also greatly reduces the stakes of state tests for schools and teachers—creating an ideal opportunity for states and school districts to revisit their approaches to testing.
The Testing Bill of Rights is centered around the idea that tests should serve as a tool to identify areas of improvement in order to ensure that every child has an opportunity to be ready for college or the workforce, and to identify persistent learning gaps that have pervaded in some communities—including communities of color—for decades. Rather than opting out of such assessments altogether, the focus should be to ensure that all students and families get an accurate and honest assessment of their progress towards career and college readiness, while making sure that such tests are less burdensome for students and teachers, and are used as a tool to help students grow and improve.
WHAT:
Press call on the Testing Bill of Rights: The Case For Better, Fewer, and Fairer Tests
WHO:
- Catherine Brown, Vice President for Education Policy, Center for American Progress
- Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware
- Laura Bay, President, National PTA
- Arva Rice, President and CEO, New York Urban League
- Paul Fanuele, President-elect, School Administrators Association of New York; Executive Principal of Arlington High School, LaGrangeville, New York
- Rhashida Abdul-malik, Queens Collegiate, Teacher
WHEN:
Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. EST
DIAL-IN INFORMATION: For dial-in information, RSVP to Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.
###