Resistance to Testing
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Assessment
Opinion
The Opt-Out Movement Is Gaining Momentum
The building opt-out movement signals a need for K-12 policymakers to improve family engagement, argue Michael P. Evans and Andrew Saultz.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Power of Parents Is on Display in Opt-Outs
Resistance to mandated tests, especially from parents of children with special needs, is reaching a breaking point in many districts, writes Rebecca Page Johnson.
Federal
Opinion
When Students Opt Out, What Are the Policy Implications?
The opt-out movement has an impact on K-12 accountability, but it's complicated, write researchers Jessica K. Beaver and Lucas Westmaas.
Assessment
Opinion
Q&A: An Early Opt-Out Talks About School Without Tests
Twelve years after opting their children out of testing, Fred and Catherine Hamel interview their daughter on her experience.
Assessment
Opinion
Test-Taking 'Compliance' Does Not Ensure Equity
Parents have a civil right to opt out of testing when children's K-12 needs go unmet, write Judith Browne Dianis, John H. Jackson, and Pedro Noguera.
Assessment
Opinion
How Does the Opt-Out Movement Intend to Close Achievement Gaps?
The opt-out movement is right to call for a richer, more authentic learning experience. It's wrong to stay silent on the educational inequality that makes testing necessary, Cristina Duncan Evans say.
Assessment
Opinion
Teachers Have No Voice or Choice in Testing, So Why Would They Support It?
Public school educators have knowledge and expertise that should be welcomed into policy debates, says Deb McCarthy, and that means the teaching profession benefits from the opt-out movement.
Assessment
Opinion
What the Opt-Out Movement Teaches Students
There is a frightening new sentiment in the education world these days that it is OK for students to pick and choose what they participate in, Marika Heughins argues.
Assessment
Opinion
Standardized Testing Has Created an Unfair Burden on Public Schools
If the opt-out movement can shed light and focus attention on the injustices public schools face, Bill Ivey says, then he is 100 percent in support of it.
Assessment
Opinion
Why the Opt-Out Movement Won't Fix Testing
Opting out is a passive response that hopes to incite change through causing inconvenience, rather than driving meaningful reform, Ken Mattingly writes.
Assessment
Opinion
Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson shares his thoughts on student engagement and testing, the future of teacher education programs, and why vocational education matters.
Assessment
'Opt-Out' Push Gains Traction Amid Common-Core Testing
Activists urging parents to opt their children out of tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards hope to build on momentum in states like New York.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
The Network for Public Education. Repeat: Public.
When I say "movement" to save public education, what I mean is this: People, like me, who have no particular resources or organizational funding/backing, who got on a plane to be in a room with those like-minded compadres--because they're terrified that America might lose public education. People who think it's not too late. People willing to stake their professional energy on doing right by all kids, keeping democratic equality as critical and central goal of the education system.
School & District Management
Opinion
Why Aren't More School Leaders and Teachers Joining Forces to Get Rid of Destructive Policy?
If your district has a genuine professional collaboration model--different work, but same level of respect and influence for teachers and school leaders--that's admirable. So--are you working together to advocate for change? Or merely going through the motions of Schooling 2015? Why aren't teachers, parents and school leaders everywhere joining forces to put a stop to the worst of it--the selling off of public resources to for-profit CMOs, teacher evaluation by test data, and loss of local control over core work: curriculum, instruction, assessment?