Mike Antonucci is providing blow by blow from the NEA’s annual convention in Philadelphia. Two changes in NEA policy of note to policy types: A very tepid, but nonetheless symbolically important, step toward embracing more differential pay but also some additions to the already laundry list of things that test scores cannot be used to make decisions about:
NEA opposes “use of student test scores as an evaluative measure for education employee performance appraisal, job assignment, job retention, promotion, tenure, salary increments, and/or school performance” in addition to existing language about not using test data to make any decisions.
If enacted, the NEA’s overall stance on testing would render testing basically completely meaningless and a waste of time and money. Ironically, their position invalidates the idea of public accountability and is quite possibly the best argument out there for the voucher position.
Joe Williams looks at the menace of testing here.