Grassroots Education Groups Applaud Testing Task Force Findings

Following the release of Tennessee’s Assessment Task Force findings recommending reduced use of standardized tests in Tennessee schools and transparency for the tests that are administered, a coalition of groups that in June had called for just this sort of testing reform issued a press release applauding the findings and urging timely action to make them reality.

Here’s the release:

Pro-education groups today announced their support for recommendations issued by the Tennessee Assessment Task Force, chaired by state education commissioner Candice McQueen. The recommendations call for the elimination of standardized testing for kindergartners and first graders; fewer standardized tests for older students; a parent advisory group and greater testing transparency.

“This is a great step in the right direction,” said Lyn Hoyt, president of  Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence (TREE) and public school parent. “Professional educators, teachers, and students all know that the singular focus on standardized tests is counterproductive. The science is clear: Forcing the youngest students to take these tests is both useless and developmentally inappropriate. Hoyt also lamented about the shroud of secrecy that the Department of Education wraps around the tests. Touting their habitual inconsistency with reporting test scores, including delayed release of TCAP scores in 2014 and seemingly artificially inflated “quick scores” in 2015, and cut scores that change every year. “It is time for the secrecy surround these tests to end,” Hoyt said. “We called for testing transparency months ago and now it is time for Governor Haslam and the legislature to act.”

TREE in partnership with a dozen other advocacy groups circulated a petition earlier this summer calling for the publication of standardized test questions and answers; pre-determined cut scores; and a reduction in the use of standardized tests.

“We urge the state to adopt these recommendations in a timely manner and continue to make efforts to both reduce the testing burden, increase instruction time away from test prep and increase confidence in the process,” Hoyt said. “Standardized tests should be used as tools to guide future learning, not as a weapon to use against our teachers and students.”

The coalition includes the following groups:

Strong Schools (Sumner County)
Williamson Strong (Williamson County)
SPEAK (Students, Parents, Educators Across Knox County)
SOCM (Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment)
Momma Bears Blog
Gideon’s Army, Grassroots Army for Children (Nashville)
Advocates for Change in Education (Hamilton County)
Concerned Parents of Franklin County (Franklin County)
The Dyslexia Spot
Parents of Wilson County, TN, Schools
Friends of Oak Ridge Schools (City of Oak Ridge Schools)
TNBATs (State branch of National BATs)
East Nashville United
Tennessee Against Common Core (Statewide)
Coalition Advocating of Public Education (CAPE)

 

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