On December 10, 2015, President Obama released a new education policy called the Every Student Succeeds Act. The act allows each state to set their own measurements for success, instead of requiring states to use standardized testing to assess students, teachers and schools.
Come standardized testing season this spring, some students are planning to stay home. Students and parents across the country, in greater numbers than ever before, are choosing to opt out of the annual assessments, saying that they are too stressful for students, teachers and schools alike, and that they don’t actually reflect how well a student is doing.
Check out this original poem about the frustrations of standardized testing by Eleanor and her brother Audren.
Eight of NYC’s nine specialized high schools use only a single score from one exam to determine admissions. The NAACP and other organizations filed a federal complaint, stating that this policy denies admission to students of color at high rates.
Kid Reporter Ana Phelan asked her classmates at PS 146, the Brooklyn New School, the following question about school closures: If you were a student at one of the schools being shut down, what would you do?
In January of 2013, teachers and students in Seattle, WA boycotted the mandatory Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), a major standardized test.
