Just in case you missed it, students at Nathan Hale High School will have to take a federally-mandated test after all – or at least, teachers will be forced to administer it. The Seattle Public Schools superintendent told teachers at the school they could be suspended or fired for not giving the test. A leadership team voted in February to not give the test to eleventh graders for a host of reasons, including that students were being tested too often.
But that doesn’t mean students and parents can’t opt out. A group is advocating just that. Take a look at this piece by Noam Chomsky on the effect of standardized testing on students. He says testing is “turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank.”
