School Board of Manatee County RESOLUTION 12-02 RESOLUTION OPPOSING OVEREMPHASIS ON HIGH-STAKES TESTING WHEREAS, our nation's future well-being relies on a high-quality public education system that prepares all students for college, careers, citizenship and lifelong learning, and strengthens the nation's social and economic well-being; and WHEREAS, the Manatee County School Board supports a rigorous system of accountability that rewards increased student achievement; and WHEREAS, our nation's school systems have been spending growing amounts of time, money and energy on high-stakes standardized testing, in which student performance on standardized tests is used to make major decisions affecting individual students, educators and schools; and WHEREAS, the overreliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability systems is undermining educational quality and equity in U.S. public schools by hampering educators' efforts to focus on the broad range of learning experiences that promote the innovation, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and deep subject-matter knowledge that will allow students to thrive in a democracy and an increasingly global society and economy; and WHEREAS, the overemphasis on standardized testing can cause collateral damage in schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, and undermining school climate; and WHEREAS, high-stakes standardized testing can have negative effects for students; and WHEREAS, the culture and structure of the systems in which students learn shall change in order to foster engaging school experiences that promote joy in learning, depth of thought and breadth of knowledge for students; NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the School Board of Manatee County, Florida urges Governor Rick Scott, the Florida Department of Education and the State Legislature to reexamine public school accountability systems in the State of Florida, and to develop a system based on multiple forms of assessment, which more accurately reflects the broad range of student learning, and is used to support students and improve schools; and RESOLVED that the School Board of Manatee County, Florida, calls on the U.S. Congress and Administration to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as the "No Child Left Behind Act," reduce the testing mandates, promote multiple forms of evidence of student learning and school quality in accountability, and not mandate any fixed role for the use of student test scores in evaluating educators. ADOPTED at a regular meeting with a quorum present and voting, this _____ day of _____, 2012. THE SCHOOL BOARD OF MANATEE COUNTY MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA By: By: ______________________________________ Harry G. Kinnan, Board Chair ______________________________________ Tim McGonegal, Superintendent of Schools