Title: Poll: Americans Want Less Standardized Testing and More School Funding | NEA
Headings: Poll: Americans Want Less Standardized Testing and More School Funding
Poll: Americans Want Less Standardized Testing and More School Funding
Content: But there’s so much funding attached to testing. if we don’t do well on testing, then we’re going to lose funding, which means we’re going to lose teachers. So teachers are being pressured to teach the children to pass the test. Everything has just spiraled out of control.” One of the biggest education stories of 2015 has been the burgeoning "Opt-Out" movement of parents who want the right to pull their children out of state mandated standardized testing. It was recently reported, for example, that 200,000 grade 3-8 students in New York state refused to take statewide tests in Reading and Math for the 2014-15 school year. According to the PDK/Gallup survey, however, the public is split on this issue. Forty-one percent said parents should be allowed to excuse their child from standardized testing, while 44 percent said they should not be allowed. ( Fifty-nine percent of Americans said they would not excuse their own child.) “NEA fully supports parents and supports our affiliates who take a stand against tests that serve no educational purpose,” says García. “