Seven Days Left – Let’s Bring Home a Win for YES on 2!
Seven Days Left – Let’s Bring Home a Win for YES on 2!
Greetings,
In exactly one week we will know if our righteous fight to end the harm of high-stakes testing will be victorious. Seven days is a long time and we need you all to chip in with an hour of time knocking on doors or making phone calls. The “no” side does not have a single volunteer knocking on doors, because they have no volunteers!
They only have big corporate interests and dark money groups. We have ourselves as the most trusted people in education in the Commonwealth. You speak, and your neighbors listen.
We want to extend a special invitation to join us at the MTA headquarters (2 Heritage Dr. in Quincy) on Saturday, at 10 a.m., to kick off a last canvass to bring this victory home.
Because of who is on our side, we know we will win, even against the largest moneyed interests on the other side.
We have the people who matter with us in this battle. Check out the YES on 2 website for a full list of our coalition:
- You, our members, the public school educators, the true experts.
- Parents, who entrust their children to our care and education.
- Congress members – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Representatives Bill Keating, Jim McGovern, Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan.
- More than 60 state legislators.
- The NEA, AFT and BTU.
To get you fortified for the final week of the campaign, listen to this virtual press conference we held today, with NEA President Becky Pringle and AFT President Randi Weingarten.
We won’t ever forget those who stood with our students and members. And we won’t forget those who stood against us – especially the Walton-funded, right-wing organizations who have spent millions to continue their battle to privatize public education, undermine unions and work against progressive taxes like the Fair Share Amendment, which we won in 2022 and which is doing so much good for our public schools, colleges and transportation systems.
The groups we battled with in 2016, the groups we went up against in 2022, and the groups we are fighting now in 2024 on Question 2 are part of the same movement against the common good. People in power should think about the company they keep. Or, to quote the folk song written by Florence Reece in 1931 during the United Mine Workers’ fight for dignity in Harlan County, Kentucky: “Which Side Are You On?”
Political Education
As we reach the end of this YES on 2 campaign, but hardly the end of the debate about the impact of high-stakes testing, we’d urge you to read this piece – “On MCAS and Climate Change, Trust the Experts” – by Louis Kruger, emeritus professor at Northeastern University, and one of the stalwart activists against high-stakes testing.
We were struck by his roundup of quotes from key organizations, which make clear how much consensus exists in the educational and psychology worlds.
“Here is what these esteemed organizations said about using a test as the deciding factor in a potentially life-changing decision, such as denying a student a high school diploma.
National Research Council (NRC):
“An educational decision that will have a major impact on a test taker should not be made solely or automatically on the basis of a single test score. Other relevant information about the student’s knowledge and skills should also be taken into account.”
American Psychological Association (APA):
“…High-stakes decisions should not be made on the basis of a single test score, because a single test can only provide a ‘snapshot’ of student achievement and may not accurately reflect an entire year's worth of student progress and achievement.”
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP):
“NASP strongly opposes the use of large scale testing as the sole determinant for making critical high-stakes decisions about students…including…receipt of a diploma…”
American Educational Research Association (AERA):
“Decisions that affect individual students’ life chances…should not be made on the basis of test scores alone.”
American Evaluation Association (AEA):
“…important decisions…about students…should not be made on the basis of any single test or test battery, no matter how many times it may be taken.”
“Based on reviews of relevant data and research, the organizations also voiced concern about the unintended negative consequences of using test scores to deny diplomas.
“High stakes testing leads to under-serving or mis-serving all students, especially the most needy and vulnerable, thereby violating the principle of ‘do no harm.’” (AEA)
“High stakes testing programs can also have unintended but negative effects on the education provided to all students by narrowing the curriculum and unduly emphasizing basic skills to the exclusion of the arts …and humanities; creating a culture of “teach-to-the-test”; increasing the psychological stress on children and families; and decreasing teacher job satisfaction.” (NASP)
“The potential problem with the current increased emphasis on testing is… the instances when tests have unintended and potentially negative consequences for individual students, groups of students, or the educational system more broadly.” (APA)
“…Students may be placed at increased risk of educational failure and dropping out; teachers may be blamed or punished for inequitable resources over which they have no control; and curriculum and instruction may be severely distorted if high test scores per se, rather than learning, become the overriding goal of classroom instruction.” (AERA)
In solidarity,
Max and Deb