Urgent! Legislative Coordinators: Help Defeat Bill to Block the End of 2nd Grade Standardized Testing
CTA is working to defeat an opposed bill that would force students in Grade 2 to continue taking the Standardized Testing and Reporting achievement test for another four years.
CTA-opposed AB 1353 by Assembly Member Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) would renege on an agreement reached with the Superintendent of Public Instruction to exclude students in Grade 2 from the standards-based achievement test requirement effective July 1, 2007. (The agreement was part of the reauthorization of California’s assessment system in SB 1448 Alpert, Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004.) Instead, the Huff bill would keep our youngest children under intense testing pressure and rob them of vital classroom instructional time. The Huff bill would keep the Grade 2 testing requirement in force until January 1, 2011.
Current law that phases out the unnecessary and low reliability Grade 2 statewide tests in July 2007 would bring California into compliance with the requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The ESEA (or NCLB) requires that children be tested statewide only in Grades 3 and up. On the other hand, the passage of AB 1353 would – by continuing the testing -- cost California approximately $3.2 million annually. These funds could be better used for instructional purposes. AB 1353 would also force more than 470,000 second-graders to lose instructional time and to suffer testing pressures that are age-inappropriate for children that young.
Defeating AB 1353 would ensure that teachers will have the time to help our youngest students achieve the knowledge and skills required to meet the state’s rigorous academic content standards -- instead of wasting time preparing children for age-inappropriate tests.
Help defeat AB 1353 and on July 1, 2007 California will join 41 states that do not mandate standardized statewide testing for students in Grade 2.
The Assembly Education Committee is expected to consider AB 1353 in early April. But it’s critical that Contact Teams generate letters and phone calls to lawmakers prior to the Legislature’s spring recess that begins on March 29. During the recess, try meeting the lawmakers or their key education staff in their local district office. Get in touch with your Assembly Member and all members of the Assembly Education Committee. Assembly Member Huff, AB 1353’s author, is a member of Assembly Education.
Make these key points:
- The bill would cost California money better spent on instruction.
- The bill reneges on an agreement with Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in 2004 to end Grade 2 testing on July 1, 2007 in SB 1448 (Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004).
- It would also keep California from synchronizing its testing with the requirements of the ESEA or NCLB, federal legislation. And it would rob students of vital instructional time and put pressures on them that are inappropriate for children that young.
Contact Your Assembly Member Now!
For more information, contact CTA Advocate Isabelle Garcia or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325.1500.