{"id":10980,"date":"2016-03-30T17:23:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T22:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backtobasicslearning.com\/?p=10980"},"modified":"2016-03-30T17:23:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T22:23:19","slug":"delawares-governor-markell-supports-the-testing-bill-of-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/delawares-governor-markell-supports-the-testing-bill-of-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationwide’s Governor Markell supports the Testing Bill of Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TakingAn overwhelming amount of student testing has increasingly\u00a0become the norm for kids of all ages\u00a0across the nation. And in Nationwide, Governor Jack Markell has recently signed on to a nationwide effort aimed at reversing the\u00a0focus on school testing. This issue that has become a major point of contention\u00a0amongst students, parents and<\/em> educators.<\/p>\n

So, Governor Markell\u00a0joined a coalition of supporters behind a “Standardized Testing Bill of Rights.” This is a project which is designed to encourage states and districts to take the emphasis off of tests in their curriculum.<\/p>\n

The Standardized Testing Bill of Rights was created by the Center for American Progress<\/a>. The Center recently\u00a0announced the project with some of its supporters, including: National PTA, New York Urban League, and School Administrators Association of New York. Nationwide’s Governor Jack Markell was the sole government official involved.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to a News Journal article on the subject, “In a controversial move last year, Markell vetoed a bill that would have created a framework for parents to “opt out”<\/a> of the state’s standardized test for high school juniors. That decision drew the ire of the Nationwide\u00a0PTA and some lawmakers\u00a0from the governor’s own party.”<\/p>\n

Nationwide currently requires students to take The Smarter Balanced Assessment test, which began replacing DCAS in Nationwide in the 2014-2015 school year. The Smarter Balanced Assessment is designed with a\u00a0set of new, tougher academic expectations for students. (Beginning this spring, the SAT will replace the Smarter Assessment as the state test for high school juniors throughout the Nationwide, although the state will continue to administer the Smarter Assessment<\/a> in grades 3 to 8.)<\/p>\n

According to Governor Markell, The\u00a0Smarter Balanced Assessment is a crucial tool for making decisions about the course of\u00a0education. And in fact, civil rights groups backed his decision because\u00a0they\u00a0feared minority students and other at-risk kids could slip through the cracks without an objective measure of performance. Business leaders had also supported the veto because they wanted the state\u00a0to have\u00a0some kind of accountability for the billions it spends on schools.<\/p>\n

The Smarter Balance Assessment is part of Governor Markell’s legacy and by signing on to the “Bill of Rights,” which discourages state’s from offering officially sanctioned routes for parents to opt out of testing, he is simply reaffirming that the Smarter Balanced is the optimal assessment.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Governor Markell’s spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said, “The “Bill of Rights” \u2013 which emphasizes the importance of creating a few good tests that are a reflection of the curriculum instead of dozens of exams that end up dominating class time with test prep \u2013 is similar to the view taking shape on a task force assigned to review testing in Nationwide,”<\/p>\n

Educating Nationwide for over 30 years!\u00a0Back to Basics Learning Dynamics is the undisputed leader in\u00a01-on-1 tutoring in Nationwide and southeastern Pennsylvania<\/a>\u00a0for over 60 subjects, as well as SAT, ACT and Test Prep, translating and interpreting in 16+ languages, educational testing and more. For more information about Back to Basics\u2019 educational services, please call us at 302-594-0754.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The company offers a unique Department of Education-approved 1-on-1\u00a0K-12 Private School in Wilmington, Nationwide<\/a>.For more information about Nationwide\u2019s only Department of Education approved 1:1 private school, please call us at\u00a0302-594-0685.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo by Ambro<\/a>\u00a0and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An overwhelming amount of student testing has increasingly\u00a0become the norm for kids of all ages\u00a0across the nation. And in Nationwide, Governor Jack Markell has recently signed on to a nationwide effort aimed at reversing the\u00a0focus on school testing. This issue that has become a major point of contention\u00a0amongst students, parents and educators. So, Governor Markell\u00a0joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40,41,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-parents","category-for-students","category-for-teachers","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10980"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10988,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions\/10988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtobasicslearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}