Educational Change

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

On January 28, CTA's State Council of Education

Council approved new recommendations for assessment and testing. 
These recommendations are all based on CTA's current policy, but are 
a step toward developing a comprehensive plan for Educational Change 
and could become the basis for educational, media, and community 
outreach campaigns as well as legislative proposals. Among the 
recommendations were:
   * Reform the state assessment and accountability program from a 
punitive system to a prescriptive system to assist teachers;
   * Move decision-making authority in the selection and use of 
assessments from federal and state levels to local districts, schools 
and teachers. These decisions must be subject to collective 
bargaining. As professional educators, teachers must have autonomy in 
developing and using assessments for students at their grade and 
subject levels;
   * Establish a process to make the state's academic content 
standards age- and developmentally appropriate. Recognize that all 
students can learn; however, no standard, assessment or performance 
target is appropriate for all students;
   * Ensure that the tests are not biased and do not discriminate 
against any student. Assess students with special needs in relation 
to the students' individual goals and objectives on the IEP or 
Section 504 plan;
   * Assess academic achievement of students whose primary language 
is other than English in the child's primary language, or in English 
once fluency is attained;
   * Use multiple measures to gather a complete picture of student, 
school and district achievement. Do not evaluate students, schools or 
districts based on a single test score. Students should not be denied 
a diploma based on the results of a single, high-stakes exit exam 
when the student has met all other district criteria for graduation;
   * Allow teachers to determine which instructional strategies and 
assessments to use for teaching and learning;
   * Use valid and reliable multiple measures to report overall 
growth of students over time;
   * Provide schools the resources necessary to close achievement 
gaps rather than imposing negative labels and punitive sanctions;
   * Limit the scope of all assessments to the appropriate school 
year and/or subject area;
   * Reduce significantly the number of federal, state, district and 
school-mandated tests;
   * Prohibit federal, state, or district-mandated standardized 
tests in grades two and below.
I have deleted some lines and shortened some for clarity, without, I 
believe, altering their meaning. The recommendations will become part 
of CTA's Educational Change Workgroup Report.
The original report, dealing with adequacy and equity in funding, 
teacher compensation, teacher development, and assistance to schools, 
was approved by the CTA Board of Directors in July 2005.



George Sheridan