Let's See If We Can Get the President's Attention

There's a petition going to direct the Department of Education and Congress to remove annual standardized testing mandates of NCLB and RttT. 

It needs 97,350 signatures and needs to get to 100,000 to get attention from the White House.  (Update: I had this backwards previously.)

Meanwhile the Today show on NBC has a Facebook poll going on about testing:

Do you think standardized tests are the best way for kids to learn? Tell us why or why not in the comments below. We’ll tackle the debate on air tomorrow!

It's running about 4,000K+no to 32 yes.




Comments

Another Petition said…
We can sign petitions until the cows come home, but Gate$ dollars will prevail.
3/25/14, 7:21 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
What does Diane Ravitch say?

We are many.

Make it that way. Gates cannot win on money alone. My experience teaches me that.
3/25/14, 8:24 PM
Mark Ahlness said…
I signed the petition, and I sure do believe in it, but you got the numbers reversed. It's got over 97,000 signatures to go...
3/25/14, 9:40 PM
Anonymous said…
Well not that it matters, but that Today show Facebook poll question is horrible--to the extent that the results are really pretty meaningless. Of course such tests aren't the best way to learn. They aren't intended to teach, but rather to assess what has already been learned, right? I'm not even sure what they were trying to get at--whether these tests are useful to teachers in teaching, whether the tests are useful in assessing how much learning has occurred, or other? Whatever the case, the poorly worded questioned pretty much guaranteed certain results. Ugh.

HIMSmom
3/25/14, 9:51 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more