By Susan Dufresne and Anthony Cody. In the past 13 years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top test-driven education policies, art has been pushed to the margins in our schools. Students have lost countless hours for creating art, music and dance that expresses themselves. But artistic expression is like the …
By Anthony Cody. We have been badgered for the past 14 years by reformers insisting on the fierce urgency of change, and they have had their way – twice! First, seven years of NCLB, followed by the past seven years of Race to the Top, and now the “next generation” of tests, which were promised to be …
By Anthony Cody. In recent weeks we have heard President Obama talk about the value of tests – even as he acknowledges that they have become too pervasive. President Obama suggested we should have tests that “enhance instruction,” and “enhance teaching and learning.” Unfortunately, the standardized …
greBy Christine Brigid Malsbary. Several days before writing this blog post, I visited a 12th grade class that I have been following since the beginning of their 11th grade year. I am a researcher and I study how education policy affects teachers and students in their daily lives. The youth I work with are all …
By Anthony Cody. Yesterday President Obama surprised us all by once again speaking out against standardized tests. In his speech, he spoke of the true role of education, to uplift and inspire. He said, When I look back on the great teachers who shaped my life, what I remember isn’t the way they prepared me to …
By Paul Horton. The Advanced Placement United States History course recently revised by the College Board has recently undergone a second major revision in response to critics from the right who argue that the first revision did not emphasize specific content and that it focused on social history and neglected …
By Anthony Cody. This week we have seen a renewed attempt to rehabilitate the beleaguered Common Core standards, just as the scores arrive in many states, largely meeting projections that they would yield increased failure rates and a wider “achievement gap.” These results are the most basic problem that the …
By Monty Neill. Testing resistance and reform activists can help determine the result of the House-Senate conference committee that will write a compromise bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, now named No Child Left Behind). Both houses of Congress took important steps to end …
By Anthony Cody. The administrators of United Opt Out have published An Activist Handbook for the Education Revolution: United Opt Out’s Test of Courage. It should of high interest to advocates for real change in our schools. One of the benefits of the 2011 Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC, was the way …
An excerpt from Horace (Rog) Lucido’s new book, “Restoring Sanity to the Classroom: Eliminating the Testing Mania.” It seems like education is on a never ending quest to be ‘reformed’. The current trend began with the successful USSR’s orbiting of Sputnik on October 4, 1957 and reached a …
