To: President Donald Trump, The Ohio State House, The Ohio State Senate, Governor Mike DeWine, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
SANER Standardized Testing Practices
High-stakes standardized testing has become a political addiction and enough is enough. In order to advocate for what is best for children, the adults in their lives demand the following two changes be made in our nation's schools immediately:
1. THE LENGTH OF TESTING TIME FOR STUDENTS TAKING STANDARDIZED TESTS MUST BE AGE-APPROPRIATE.
When third-graders are required to sit for a two and a half hour reading test, which is the same amount of time tenth graders spend taking their graduation tests, and are then mandated to FAIL if they don't pass that test, that isn't sane. When students are taking so many tests that they don't have enough time to learn (and enjoy) their year's curriculum, that isn't sane. (Those are but two examples of a long, nationwide list.)
2. STUDENTS MUST NOT BE TESTED UNLESS THEIR SCORED TESTS ARE RETURNED TO THEM.
High stakes standardized testing results in life-affecting mandates and placements that label students and teachers. Since we are in the business of teaching and learning, indeed, students should receive their graded tests back in order to see which parts they did well on, to document areas in which they need to expand their learning, and to allow future lessons to be enriched accordingly. Holding students and teachers accountable for phantom test scores and not letting students, parents, and teachers see graded tests is not sane.
We the People demand SANER Standardized Testing Practices on behalf of our nation's youth.
Why is this important?
My name is Dawn Neely-Randall and this is my 24th year of teaching. I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the amount of test prep, testing, retesting, and data-collecting that is being done based on phantom test scores in our nation's schools. My knees are shaking, but I am speaking out on behalf of my students who are expected to test for hours and hours yet again next month. Our legislators need to do their homework on child development and the adults in our children's lives need to say Enough is Enough!!! Please advocate for SANER Standardized Testing Practices on behalf of our children.