Re: Second Grade Testing

["Kathy Emery" <mke4think@hotmail.com>]

got this in my email box yesterday from Ed Voice.  They wanted me to write 
to the governator to support testing for 2nd grade!!

kathy

FROM ED VOICE   http://edvoice.org/  -- UGH!!!!

If we want our students to succeed, we need to know how they're doing so we 
can help them before it's too late.  Early assessments in elementary school 
make this possible.

But this past week, an Assembly budget subcommittee voted to gut the system 
by eliminating funding for the 2nd grade standards test.
Without this critical assessment, parents will be left in the dark on how 
their children are really performing until the 4th Grade.

Click here to send a letter to the Governor to protect this vital system for 
our students.

The "Getting Down to Facts" studies conducted by America's top researchers 
made it clear that California needs to do a better job of using data to 
facilitate improvement in our schools.  Without early assessments, parents, 
teachers, and principals simply won't have the information they need to do 
the best possible jobs for our students.

Thank you for taking the time to protect high expectations for public 
schools.

Sincerely,

Christopher Cabaldon, President
EdVoice



Sample Letter:

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Early assessments identify students who are falling behind and provide 
parents, teachers and principals with objective information about how each 
child is doing.  The 2nd grade standards test is a critical indicator of 
early learning and helps identify students that are below basic and far 
below basic for intervention and remediation while the children are still in 
grade school.

That's why it's so important that you reject the Assembly budget 
subcommittee's action to cut funding for the 2nd grade standards test - we 
must reauthorize this vital assessment.

Failure to reauthorize the 2nd grade standards test would mean that children 
would enter the 4th grade before any statewide, standards-based assessment 
results are provided to their parents.  Not only would this render our data 
system meaningless for evaluating best practices in the primary grades, but 
it would severely undermine California's effort to ensure that every child 
can read by the end of third grade.

Lastly, while some may argue that local assessments could fill the void, it 
is unclear what resources local districts would have to develop these new 
assessments and whether or not they would be aligned to quality standards.  
Local districts simply don't have the resources to make this happen and 
would be forced to take precious dollars away from other programs to 
continue some form of assessment.

Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]

Click here to send your letter.
Forward this email to friends and ask them to join in to have an even bigger 
impact.

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