The May 20th Richmond Teachers for Social Justice Testing Forum convened at Unity of Richmond with seventeen parents, teachers, and university faculty from the greater Richmond area. We gathered to discuss high stakes testing on the national scale, and what we can do locally to both register our opposition and propose viable alternatives. After viewing video news coverage on Democracy Now! of a successful testing boycott organized by Garfield High School teachers in Seattle, Washington (see democracynow.org for updates on the teachers’ victory), participants broke into small groups to generate ideas for creating the kind of changed that has occurred in Seattle.
Participants identified both challenges and possibilities for local testing reform. Among the challenges, participants highlighted the need to address equity issues in the opposition to testing, including the school-to-prison pipeline and the effects of testing on minoritized populations; and the question of whether any standardized assessments, no matter how well-designed, support the goals of socially just education. Participants suggested conducting quantitative research on Richmond area residents’ perspectives on standardized testing, publicizing alternative program assessment strategies such as those pursued by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Focused Inquiry department, and lowering the stakes on the current Standards of Learning testing series while alternatives are developed.
The meeting concluded with several participants staying to record brief, anonymous audio narratives in the Testing Booth, an initiative modeled on the popular broadcast radio program StoryCorps. Narratives will eventually form part of a podcast available on the RTSJ website, so that the full spectrum of those who take, administer, and are affected by standardized tests can reach the public.
--Lara dos Passos Coggin
