Letters to the Editor

It’s MCAS time in Boston

Our children are spending less time learning and more time prepping for standardized tests. Are you concerned about the ever-increasing influence of standardized testing on your children?

Do you have the feeling that your child is getting a narrow, test prep education, while suburban kids are still learning a broad and deep curriculum that better prepares them for college and careers? Take heart. A national rebellion started last month and it’s spreading rapidly throughout the United States.

FairTest (whose office is in Boston), and 12 other organizations have drafted a National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing. In a one-week period, more than 200 organizations and 5,000 individuals have signed it.

Education historian Diane Ravitch helped draft the resolution. It’s important, she wrote, because the way testing is being used is harming our schools and children. Tests are a tool, not a goal. We should use them as needed, not let them use us. Their misuse has turned them into a weapon to narrow the curriculum, promote gaming the system, and control teachers.

Among the organizations are the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; National Opportunity To Learn Campaign (Cambridge); Parents Across America; Palm Beach (FL) County School Board; National Education Association; United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries; Center for Collaborative Education (Boston); National Association for Bilingual Education; American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; Fairfax (VA) County Public Schools; National Council of Teachers of English; Alliance for Childhood; National Alliance for Multicultural Education; and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Here’s the link: http://timeoutfromtesting.org/nationalresolution/.

Lisa Guisbond
FairTest