The Cache Valley (UT) Daily (7/1) reports that delegates at the National Education Association’s annual meeting in Denver are expected to focus on the overuse of standardized testing, according to Utah Education Association President Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh. Gallagher-Fishbaugh says that “standardized testing in reading and writing, math and science is so frequent that it’s stressing students out” and that “there seems to be frustration from educators around the nation over the increased standardized testing which has cut way down on instructional time.”
Ravitch Explains Opposition To Common Core
The Washington Post (1/19, Strauss) “Answer Sheet” blog features an address by Diane Ravitch to the Modern Language Association about the Common Core standards, in which she explains “why so many educators and parents are now opposed to the standards and are reacting angrily to the testing that accompanies them.” She argues that NCLB and RTTT have “has produced a massive demoralization of educators; an unprecedented exodus of experienced educators ... the closure of many public schools,” and “the opening of thousands of privately managed charters,” which she says were often “low-quality for-profit charter schools” or “low-quality online charter schools.” She further claims that the agenda of the Common Core as well as that of NCLB and RTTT is not improved education, but is instead “cutting costs, standardizing education,” and “eliminating unions and pensions.”