My Problems With the Tests

1. There are too many tests
2. The tests are too long
3. The tests are poorly designed and poorly written
4..The tests are surrounded by a level of secrecy usually reserved for a nuclear arsenal
5. The tests are never returned to students and teachers to inform instruction.
6. The tests are used to rate teachers, schools and whole school districts, purposes for which they were never intended
7. The tests are made by profit making companies who give huge contributions to legislators and perks to policy making bodies
8. The tests are used to justify the implementation of a National Curriculum- the Common Core- whose advocates claim it is neither national nor a curriculum.
9. The tests are incredibly expensive and take money away from the arts, counseling, and libraries
10. The tests are discriminatory in the manner they are applied to Special Needs and ELL Students.
11. The high stakes attached to the tests have forced schools in high poverty districts to use recess and gym for test prep.
12. The tests have been used as an excuse for closing thousands of schools and firing tens of thousands of teachers, many of them teachers of color.

That is my list.

Please feel free to add to it in the Comments section below