An article on Education Week reported that the National Council of Teachers of English considered proposals about high-stakes testing and the use of standards in public schools.  According to the authors of the report:

the decision unfolded at the organization’s annual convention this past weekend in Chicago. As it does every year, the group accepts proposed resolutions from members, which are then debated at the annual meeting and considered for adoption by its resolutions committee. Those that secure two-thirds approval become policy.

HIGH-STAKES TESTING

One proposal was sent by a group of members to the NCTE board that asked the organization to oppose common core standards and national tests.  The rationale for the proposal was based on the following assertions, each of which has been explored and supported on this blog:

A. The movement for national standards and tests is based on these claims: (1) Our educational system is broken, as revealed by US students’ scores on international tests; (2) We must improve education to improve the economy; (3) The way to improve education is to have national standards and national tests to reveal whether standards are being met.

B. Each of these claims is false. (1) Our schools are not broken. The problem is poverty. Test scores of students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools are among the best in world. Our mediocre scores are due to the fact that the US has the highest level of child poverty among all industrialized countries. (2) Existing evidence strongly suggests that improving the economy improves the status of families and children’s educational outcomes. (3) There is no evidence that national standards and national tests have improved student learning in the past.

There was also another proposal which called for a no confidence vote on Secretary of Education Duncan.  It did not pass, but according to the final decision, much of this second proposal was integrated with the first proposal, although Susan Ohanian was concerned that the committee did not oppose the concept of standards.

However, NCTE did resolved to

end high-stakes testing and the evaluation of teachers and schools based on students’ test scores.

Within the second proposal, one of the resolutions called on the NCTE to “oppose the adoption of national standards as a concept,” and, specifically, oppose the set of standards drafted as part of an initiative spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The final version calls on the NCTE to “publicly voice its critique of and opposition to educational reform policies that mandate standards, curriculum, and means of assessment that adversely affect social and educational equity.”

The resolutions approved by the NCTE is an important event in the current standards-based and high-stakes testing movement.  There has been little opposition to the movement, and here at last we have a professional organization opposing some aspects of the movement.

As I asked in an earlier post, why haven’t we heard from the National Science Teachers Association on these issues?