School board calls for fewer standardized tests

Resolution wants Harrisburg to end Keystones as graduation requirement

Weary of the time, expense and energy consumed by high-stakes standardized testing in public education, the Pottstown School Board Thursday voted unanimously in support of measures which would reduce it.

Signed into law in December by President Obama, and replacing the No Child Left Behind law, the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act gives states the right “to diminish the overuse of highstakes standardized resting to evaluate students, educators and schools,” according to the resolution the school board adopted.

Recognizing that “standardized testing is only one measure of student learning” and that such testing “may have the greatest negative impact on students with special needs who often demonstrate proficiency through alternative forms of assessment,” the resolution calls on the state legislature minimize standardized testing and “develop an accountability system that is not ‘one size fits all.’”

More specifically, the board resolution also calls on Harrisburg to “permanently separate Keystone exams from high school graduation requirements.”

Currently, Keystones are set to become graduation requirements in the 201819 school year.

The resolution “speaks to the detrimental effects high-stakes testing has had on our students, our staff, our district and our community. I’ve seen it firsthand,” said Mike DiDonato, a Pottstown Middle School teacher and vice president of the Federation of Pottstown Teachers.

“I’ve seen stressed-out students in tears, I’ve seen teachers stressed to the edge, constantly thinking about how to teach to the test, and the constant pressures to get those results,” said DiDonato, adding “not to mention the time and the money we spend on these things, its astounding.”

The Pottstown School District is not the only educational entity taking a look at what Pennsylvania

Legislation recently signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf legalizing the growing of industrial hemp in Pennsylvania represents a significant step forward for the agricultural industry in Pennsylvania, State Senator Judy Schwank (D-Berks) said on July 22.

“Pennsylvania will now be on the same playing field as other states that have passed should change as a result of the new federal education law.

In an April study of the provisions, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association wrote: “Districts need an accountability system that gives them the ability to substitute different assessments to meet the accountability requirements of ESSA. Tests should be implemented, scored and used in ways to reduce student and teacher anxiety and promote learning.”

In the section of the study devoted to assessment — which included participation by Greg Miller, chief student achievement officer for the Boyertown Area School District — the authors wrote that assessments should measure student achievement, and needs, but not teacher effectiveness.

That too is a position hemp legislation,” Schwank said. “Bringing this multimillion dollar industry back to Pennsylvania will provide new opportunities for farmers and give Pennsylvania the chance to open new doors for generations of farmers to come.”

Schwank spearheaded the legislation in the Senate and was a tireless advocate for the reestablishment of the industrial hemp industry. Her legislation was supported by the Pottstown resolution on testing.

“The Pottstown School District has a strong model of teacher observation and practice that guides instructional delivery and engages teachers and administrators in its own evaluation program,” according to the resolution.

The PSBA study group also found standardized tests in Pennsylvania are “too long, too frequent and not developmentally appropriate.”

High Stakes test can also have another impact — sometimes positive, sometimes negative — on a community’s reputation.

Districts’ “School Performance Profile” scores are highlighted in headlines, those that rise, those that fall, and often enough a perception of a district’s effectiveness and program can be based on scores unanimously approved by the Senate, while companion legislation - introduced in the House - made its way through the General Assembly and onto the governor’s desk earlier this week.

Act 92 allows for the growing, cultivation and marketing of market industrial hemp within the state and permits growing industrial hemp for research purposes by agencies, colleges and universities. The which measure only one aspect of the education provided with little to no acknowledgement of the advantages or disadvantages its students have experienced at home.

Pottstown school officials frequently found themselves defending lower scores and pointing out that poverty and home stability — things over which educators have no control — are better predictors of standardized test scores than the curriculum of a district.

“The Pottstown School District provides a high standard of creative, meaningful, academic instruction and assessment that helps students achieve their personal best, all of which may be diminished by the narrowing of the curriculum that results from an over-emphasis on standardized testing,” the Pottstown resolution states. new law also establishes the Hemp Research Board and charges it with developing regulations, applications for registration, inspections, a database of registered persons, registration fees, guidelines for labeling and testing.

Schwank said there are many ways to use industrial hemp including its application in textiles, building materials, industrial and environmental products, food and paper.