NPE Call for Congressional Hearings on Testing

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Following the successful 2014 National Conference, The Network for Public Education issued a call for congressional hearings on the overuse and misuse of testing in our public schools.

Together, we have managed to catch the attention of members of Congress. We created a Twitter Storm that sent out over 20K tweets and reached 400K people via social media while trending #1. We flooded the offices of Congress with phone calls from concerned constituents. We continue to bring attention to the plague of over-testing and the media has taken notice!

For the next part of our campaign, we are asking our Friends & Allies to print out and mail a copy of this letter to the offices of our friends at Institute for America’s Future in Washington D.C.. In the coming weeks, we will hand deliver our letters to Congress. Keep an eye out for details! (Click here for a version in Spanish)

Thanks for doing your part by printing out a copy, placing on a stamp and dropping the letter into a mail box. You might consider making copies and bringing them to PTA meetings or passing them out to your friends and family. In this age of email and electronic media, mail in campaigns are not very common. This will make our presentation to Congress that much more effective. Send your letter to:

NPE Call for Hearings
c/o Institute for America’s Future
1825 K St. NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC20006

If you are not able to print out a letter and would like to be included in our Call for Hearings, we will add your name and information to our letter. Just fill out this form and we will add you to our campaign!

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We’re calling for Congressional leaders to pursue these eleven inquiries:

1. Do the tests promote skills our children and our economy need?
2. What is the purpose of these tests?
3. How good are the tests?
4. Are tests being given to children who are too young?
5. Are tests culturally biased?
6. Are tests harmful to students with disabilities?
7. How has the frequency and quantity of testing increased?
8. Does testing harm teaching?
9. How much money does it cost?
10. Are there conflicts of interest in testing policies?
11. Was it legal for the U.S. Department of Education to fund two testing consortia for the Common Core State Standards?

The following documents and press releases contain further information about NPE’s Call for Congressional Hearings.

WE ARE MANY. THERE IS POWER IN OUR NUMBERS. TOGETHER WE WILL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.