Dive Brief:
- A bipartisan bill aims to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by reducing the number of federally mandated tests required by each state. The bill is backed by the largest teachers union, the National Education Association.
- Under the new bill, students would no longer test in reading and math annually in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. They would instead be assessed only in certain grade spans, and the number of federally mandated standardized tests would be minimized from 14 to six.
- This is the fist time a bill reducing federal testing mandates has been introduced since the inception of No Child Left Behind.
Dive Insight:
Our country’s focus on standardized tests has had disruptive effects on the ways our classrooms are run. Schools driven by assessments miss out on critical learning opportunities.
Civil Rights activists are likely to argue less testing means more minority students will slip through the cracks. While this is a valid concern, it does not account for why students are slipping. If the United States really wants to reinvent its approach to education and create places where students feel excited, perhaps a less test-driven agenda is necessary to engage those who would otherwise fall through the cracks.
All this said, in all likelihood the bill will probably not pass. Currently these standardized tests are not just in place to measure student growth, but to evaluate teacher performance. If the bill passed, it would be far too difficult to determine the impact of an individual teacher on students’ growth.