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Test Scores Shut Doors
High Stakes And Excessive Testing Harms Our Children

Do You Know About NYC's New Testing Plan?

  • Every child -- K-12 -- will be tested every 6-8 weeks
  • $25 million has been set aside to develop these tests.
Do You Know About High Stakes Tests?
  • Tests in which a single score determines promotion or graduation.
  • Our children must pass 5 Regents exams to receive a HS diploma.
  • 3rd, 5th and 7th graders MUST pass citywide tests to be promoted to the next grade.
  • A child who fails a single test by a single point will not be promoted or graduate.
Do You Know What's Wrong With High Stakes Tests?
High stakes tests don't measure higher level thinking skills. They don’t measure our children’s ability to:
  • Think critically;
  • Be creative;
  • Solve problems.
Do You Know How High Stakes and Excessive Tests Impact Schools?

More and more time is spent on preparing for and taking tests. High Stakes tests have turned our schools into test prep factories that:

  • Leave little (or no) time for art, music and drama programs.
  • Drastically reduce badly needed periods of physical education.
  • Severely limit (or eliminate) class trips to NYC’s world-class cultural and scientific institutions.
  • Test prep narrows what gets taught and takes the joy out of learning.
Do You Know Why Private Schools Refuse To Give High Stakes Tests?

They know that these tests cheat kids out of a first class education because:

  • A curriculum of "drill and kill" test prep makes learning dull and simplistic.
  • A good education requires more than just reading and math skills.
  • High Stakes tests do not prepare children for college.
Do You Know Who Profits From These Tests?

Testing companies like McGraw Hill and Princeton Review make huge profits. These profits are made at the expense of our children’s education.

Do You Know Who Is Hurt Most By High Stakes Tests?

  • ALL students are hurt, but especially low income students and children of color.
  • Children with learning disabilities are penalized.
  • English Language Learners are discriminated against.
  • Children who are poor test-takers.
WE NEED TEACHING NOT TESTING!

Download this FACT sheet in English (PDF)
Download this FACT sheet in Spanish (PDF)

Please help collect signatures for this campaign. Download and circulate the petition at your child's school, at work, anywhere!

Want more info? Read our fact sheet that explains the problems with the Teacher Data Reports.

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Help stop K-2 standardized testing in our schools!
Download and copy the parent protest letter and SLT & PTA resolutions, and gather signatures today!
+ Letter for School Leadership Teams and PTAs
+ Letter for Parents
+ Letter for Parents, spanish

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The Alliance for Childhood has issued a report on the need for creative play, not testing or test prep, in kindergarten.
+ Read the flier
+ Read the 8-page summary.

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Stop K-2 standardized testing!
Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg are considering a policy to bring mandated standardized testing to kindergarten through 2nd grade. We must stop them!

Sign the online petition today, and pass on the link.


NCLB is up for reauthorization NOW!
Read about it in THIS BOOKLET
Then contact your congressperson


Join the TOFT mailing list:







Did You Know?
Did you know that charter schools in New York City enroll fewer students who qualify for free lunch and fewer homeless students?

Music Video: "Not on the Test"
Produced by: Public School Test Records and Grammy Award-winner Tom Chapin

Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
Sam Dillon, New York Times

As Test-Taking Grows, Test-Makers Grow Rarer
David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times

Principals Face Review in Education Overhaul
Elissa Gootman, New York Times

"No Child Left Behind: The Test"
Stan Karp, Rethinking Schools

National Education Association:
More information against NCLB.

"Test Question No. 1: Why Have These Tests?"
NYT article on one of Time Out's strongest activists: Jane R. Hirschmann

produced by Naava Katz Design