Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Want Less Testing, More Learning? Sign and Share the Citizens for Public Schools Petition Today




The immediate response to our new Less Testing, More Learning petition has confirmed our suspicion that there is a lot of passionate interest in resisting the testing onslaught in Massachusetts. In just two days, the petition garnered almost 1,000 signers from cities and towns across the Commonwealth. Many are adding comments like this one from Joanna DelMonico in Billerica: "I teach at community college. Students constantly ask 'will this be on the test?' No love of learning!!! Stop high stakes testing." Or how about this from Deborah Milligan in Somerville: "I'm a high school public school teacher. The testing is causing anxiety among the children to such an extent that they can't learn because they are too anxious to do it. Stop this train!!!"

Have you signed and shared with all your friends and contacts yet by email, Facebook, Twitter, word of mouth? No? What are you waiting for? Click here to sign. 

For inspiration, watch this strong video from New York, featuring parents talking about why they are opting their children out of state testing. (Just over three minutes long.)

And for signs that the national resistance is being taken seriously and covered beyond the usual sources and suspects, read this well-written article by Alice G. Walton in Forbes Magazine, of all places. It features some of our favorite experts, including Long Island principal Carol Burris, who described the destructive impact of Common Core standards and testing. "If you have goals that are developmentally inappropriate, so much time is spent getting students to achieve what they're supposed to, that there's very little time left for music, social studies, science. Young children should be doing science. They should be watching chicks hatch and planting seeds - hands-on activities - and learning the concept of experimentation. There's no longer time for this, because they're doing ELA and math all day."

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so true of what's happening in the New Bedford public schools,and administrators are to blame for this form of educational child abuse.

Anonymous said...

Where did all the money go? Spent on one lousy reading program. Teachers didn't even receive the proper training-a few hours!!! We still don't have technology, lack of aids and resources. Durkin has so many highly paid "helpers" that we don't need! We need custodians, teachers, smaller class sizes..the list goes on and on..This is absurd! I hope Chester's pawn leaves..very soon!