ATP Writes to the Oval Office

There comes a time when it's time to write directly to the Oval Office.  ATP's CEO Dr.  William G. Harris decided that time had come this fall when President Obama issued new directives focusing on standardized testing in schools, followed by a joint statement from current Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan and incoming appointee, John King.

"I think it's important that we address any statement that comes out of a public office at that level and relates to testing," Harris stated. Though he indicated he did not find the White House statement particularly damaging towards the testing industry,  he stated that it is important for ATP to weigh in on the controversy that has been brewing for years related to how much testing is too much testing in the schools.

Harris' letter came in response to a statement released by President Obama in October which directed the Department of Education to review its policies "to address any places where the Administration may have contributed to the problem of overemphasis on testing burdening classroom time." The statement went as far as to propose an actual cap of 2% on classroom standardized testing.  In its use of the phrase -- "contributing to the problem" --  the White House was referring to its Race to the Top initiative and state waiters from No Child Left Behind that were conditioned on use of tests to evaluate teachers. Both initiatives left controversy in their wake as different groups from teachers to parents, and from administrators to lawmakers, struggled to meet what appeared to be changing, and often conflicting parameters on how and when to measure student learning. The White House statement also came on the heels of a report released by the Council of Great City Schools  (Council) that concluded "assessment activities at the state, district and school levels are often 'incoherent, misaligned, redundant or inappropriate."    

In his letter, Dr. Harris commended the Administration for highlighting the importance of using assessments that are purposeful, timely and informative, referring to the Obama statement that, "One essential part of educating students successfully is assessing their progress in learning to high standards. Done well and thoughtfully, assessments are tools for learning and promoting equity." But at the same time Dr. Harris reminded the President that although the Council’s report stresses assessments that are strategic, coherent, non-redundant, high quality and actionable, these descriptive terms make for great sound bites, but the Council’s report and the communiqués from the White House do not operationalize these impressive sounding terms. Neither does coming up with some kind of random “testing cap” that mistakenly focuses attention away from the critical issues that have been identified.

Indeed, Dr. Harris pointed to an op-ed piece in the Washington Post in which the Council itself was critical of the Administration's suggestion of a cap on testing, stating that "it is a bad idea."

No response yet has been received from the White House, but Dr. Harris noted the importance of getting ATP introduced as a collective voice for the testing community should any further action be taken by the Administration or the Department of Education. Download the full text of Dr. Harris' letter to the White House here.