Today, I wrote a comment on the United Opt Out National website which has been organized by prominent educators as a movement to end punitive public school testing.  According to the organizers of United Opt Out National,

Members of this site are parents, educators, students and social activists who are dedicated to the elimination of high stakes testing in public education. We use this site to collaborate, exchange ideas, support one another, share information and initiate collective local and national actions to end the reign of fear and terror promoted by the high stakes testing agenda.

United Opt Out National has declared that January 7, 2012 is National Opt Out Day, which this blog supports.  This movement, organized by grass roots educators, is dedicated to outright banning of high-stakes testing.  I have written many posts on this topic and have provided research evidence to support the ban.

Here is the comment I made on the  United Opt Out site:

I have been writing about why we should ban high-stakes testing on my blog The Art of Teaching Science for some time, and I am thrilled that United Opt Out is working to lead the way out of the current abyss that characterizes the way we treat students and teachers in public schools.

The consequence of eliminating high-stakes testing would be the immediate removal of the pressure on students and teachers to be controlled by a Federal policy that is deeply flawed, and based on a factory mentality of education that does not fit with 21st Century society. The implementation of high-stakes testing has had more impact on what and how teachers teach than any curriculum innovation of the past 50 years. Teachers are pressured to teach to the test, and in a case reported recently on this blog, Florida science teachers are throwing out hands-on and inquiry activities so that they can spend more time teaching to the end of year test (FCAT).

As a science educator, the consequence of eliminating high-stakes testing in science would enable science teachers to encourage innovation, creativity and science-inquiry. Teachers would also be free to relate science to the lived experiences of their students, to involve students in engaging scientific projects, and use the wealth of resources and curricula that have been developed by the leading science educational organizations in the Nation.

In my e-Book, The Enigma of High-Stakes Testing in Science, I provide research embedded in 21 articles that supports the position that high-stakes testing should be banned.

Thank you for leading this effort.

What do you thing about banning high-stakes testing?  Do you think high-stakes tests ought to be banned?