Education advocates and teacher groups embraced the announcement, but implored the department to put actions behind its words, while emphasizing the issue goes much deeper than how tests affect teachers.
“Allowing for more time and flexibility to ensure fair educator evaluations based on the new student assessments shows a willingness to listen and learn from parents, teachers and students,” said Carmel Martin, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, in a statement.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the department “spawned this testing fixation” through No Child Left Behind waivers and its Race to the Top program, which gave states financial rewards for implementing reforms it backed. She said Duncan’s admission that testing has gone too far “is a good step, if there is real course-correction that is linked to concrete action and not just words.”
“We shouldn’t be testing every child, every year. We need assessments that meaningfully measure student learning. We need to invest the time and resources wasted on excessive and unhelpful testing back into art and music and other enriching curriculum,” Weingarten said in a statement. “And we need a new accountability system that moves from a test-and-punish model to a support-and-improve model.”