Defies Measurement’ Illustrates Failures of Test-Focused Policy
In “Defies Measurement,” teacher-turned-filmmaker Shannon Puckett gathers the recollections and reflections of twenty-three former students, parents, and teachers from Chipman Middle School in Alameda, California, and illustrates how a nurturing school community was gradually dismantled by the test-and-punish dynamics of education reform under No Child Left Behind. Puckett, who taught at Chipman and quit because of the chages following from NCLB, also contextualizes the eventual closure of the school, and the devaluation of what it stood for, in the broader context of education reform and accountability efforts nationwide.
News
May 2026
- NAEP Civics Tests Could Expand to Offer State-by-State Results
- Comments submitted by the conservative National Association of Scholars and the Civics Alliance and Defending Education include highly prescriptive suggestions, such as aligning the framework with its NAS’ American Birthright standards and another set of standards promulgated by Hillsdale College. It also suggested the board attempt to avoid any language that appears to endorse “action civics,” a teaching approach through which students try to solve local problems, often engaging with local government.
- Test-Based Accountability Is Failing Colorado’s Children
- As the Colorado General Assembly wraps up the 2026 session, lawmakers once again failed to confront one of the most costly and disruptive features of public education: high-stakes standardized testing.
- Key legislative proposals that would have addressed the burden of high-stakes testing were defeated again. SB26-068 would have reduced CMAS standardized tests to the minimum extent possible, and HB26-1291 would have reduced teacher evaluations for non-probationary teachers from annually to every three years. Both had bipartisan sponsorship and were supported by teachers, parents, and community members, but opposed by billionaire-backed education reform lobbyists.
April 2026
March 2026
- Colorado lawmakers hope to cut CMAS testing time to ease student stress and the state budget
- Democratic state Sen. Chris Kolker, of Centennial, calls current testing hours “onerous” for students who take the Colorado Measures of Academic Success exams every spring, some of whom spend as many as 11 hours over the course of a few weeks on the tests.
- “Do you think having kids sitting for a test over 11 hours is engaging them in school?” he asked, referring to eighth graders whose CMAS testing can stretch that long. “Does that engage kids and do they want to be in school?”
Articles
- MALLORY: State testing fails multilingual students in a high-tech world
- Data shows a correlation between declining student test scores and the rise of cell phone use | NPR
- Would more emphasis on high-stakes testing help address America’s learning woes? | Chalkbeat
- The Future of School Accountability Isn’t More Testing | The 74 Million
- What Is the Classic Learning Test, and Why Is It Popular With Conservatives? | Ed Week
- Data shows a correlation between declining student test scores and the rise of cell phone use | NPR
- Would more emphasis on high-stakes testing help address America’s learning woes? | Chalkbeat Ideas
Resources
- FairTest | FairTest works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.