Statement of support from President Cinda Klickna on behalf of the Illinois Education Association
The Normal Community High School students who have been protesting the over-emphasis on standardized testing are demonstrating good judgment and excellent citizenship.
The NCHS protest is a great reminder that all of us who work in education, from the administration to the classroom teachers and support staff, need to remain focused, first and foremost, on what is best for the students we serve.
The Normal students know, as do we at IEA, that our nation’s current testing obsession has nudged aside visual arts, music, physical education, social studies, and science, not to mention world languages. Too many of our schools have been reduced to mere test prep factories, where teachers and students perform a script written by someone who has never visited their classroom and where “achievement” means nothing more than scoring well on a “bubble test.”
Our children’s education should not be about learning how to fill in the bubbles on standardized tests. And no one can better articulate that fact than the people who are being subjected to all this testing — the students.
The 130,000 members of IEA applaud the activism of the NCHS students. Their activism exemplifies the mission of IEA: to achieve excellence and equity in education.
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