Can’t be in DC with PAA? Join us anyway!

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Julie Woestehoff

We know that most of our PAA chapter and affiliate members are not able to get to Washington DC this coming week for our annual leadership conference, so we’re going to try to create some opportunities for you to participate in some of our activities virtually and long-distance. Let’s start with our Capitol Hill Day on Monday, July 28. A number of PAA leaders will be visiting Congress that day, highlighting three priority issues: Reducing high-stakes testing, Strengthening student privacy … →

North Carolina parents call for end to test based retention program

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Julie Woestehoff

North Carolina Parents call on General Assembly to end Read to Achieve Contacts: Pamela Grundy, Mecklenburg ACTS.org, pamgrundy@earthlink.net, 704-806-0410 Janna Robertson, UNC-Wilmington Dropout Prevention Coalition, Robertsonj@uncw.edu, 910-777-1930 Ilina Ewen, third-grade parent, Raleigh, theewens@gmail.com, 919-632-2915 MecklenburgACTS.org, Fix Read to Achieve Now and a coalition of concerned North Carolina parents call on our fellow parents across the state to urge their state representatives to end the disastrous Read to Achieve program, and to invest instead in more efficient and effective … →

Part 3: High Stakes Testing and Opting Out: The Variables

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Dora Taylor

The Variables High stakes testing has ramifications including ending careers and affecting communities by closing schools. Hence, we need to look carefully at the variables that might affect a student’s performance on a test. Teachers and principals do not work in a vacuum. They have students with lives outside school. Students live in a real world. The real world affects how they behave and their ability to focus in class. These factors include: English being a second language The … →

High Stakes Testing: Part 1

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Dora Taylor

To follow is the first in a series of posts describing what high stakes testing is, how it began, the ramifications of this type of testing and how it will affect every student. High Stakes Testing: A Little History “…I discovered then, in my early teaching career, that learning is best driven by ideas, challenges, experiences, and activities that engage students. My experience over the past 45 years has confirmed this. We have come far from that time in … →

New book includes chapter by PAA’s Dora Taylor

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Julie Woestehoff

Our Seattle PAA founding member, Dora Taylor, has a chapter in new book, “Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of School Reform,” edited by Julie Gorlewski, State University of New York-New Paltz and Brad Porfilio, Lewis University. Dora’s chapter is called “High Stakes Testing: A Parent’s Perspective.” From the publicity flyer: Public education is suffering attacks that are well funded and extraordinarily complex and multifaceted. These conditions make it difficult for educators and citizens to gather the … →

A Virginia parent speaks truth to Arne Duncan

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Julie Woestehoff

We welcome our first chapter in Virginia, PAA-Roanoke Valley, and its leader, Laura Bowman.Check out (and like!) their new Facebook page! Here’s the story Laura told us about why she wanted to start a PAA chapter: I think it’s so important to have a parent group in my area speaking up in support of our public schools, teachers, and students. I believe that high stakes testing and the education reform movement have hijacked our schools and turned them into testing … →

More Texas testing resistance!

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Julie Woestehoff

From Karen Miller: The Texas House of Representatives voted 3/26 to reduce high stakes tests required for Texas high school graduation from 15 to 5 tests: English II reading and writing, algebra I, biology and US history. House public education committee chair, Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, began the marathon nine hour debate by asking the members four questions: *Are we over-testing our students? *Is it ok for a child to find a path outside of a four year college degree? … →

Parents Across America statement in support of Portland student test boycott

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Julie Woestehoff

Parents Across America (PAA) stands in support of the Portland Public Schools Student Union and the Portland Student Union in their opt-out campaign against the state-mandated OAKS test.    Excessive reliance on standardized exams narrows the curriculum, promotes teaching to the test, and leads to unfair and unreliable evaluations of students, teachers, and schools. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act and the recent NCLB waivers harm our schools by promoting an overemphasis on testing and punitive mandates that are … →

Why, as a parent, I support Garfield teachers’ opposition to excessive and inaccurate testing

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Julie Woestehoff

By Sue Peters, founding member, Parents Across America Originally published in EdVoices on January 30, 2013, republished with permission For his first school-library experience in kindergarten, my five-year-old son was not allowed to check out a book. Instead he was placed in front of a computer with a set of headphones and told to take a test for an hour. That was my family’s introduction to the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP®), a computerized, adaptive test for math and English, … →

Speak out about the school-to-prison pipeline

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Julie Woestehoff

Yesterday, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin convened a hearing on the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a way of describing the way some school policies and practices may simply push students – particularly low-income students and students of color – out of school and into jail. Zero tolerance policies, school closings, high-stakes testing, and other factors contribute to this devastating situation. This was an unprecedented hearing, and, unlike the panels of corporate reformers we more often see gathered to share their positions, this time … →

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