All signs point to Congress reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The last major overhaul, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, got many things wrong.

Testing should never be at the center of education policy, but it has a role to play. That’s why the AFT calling on Congress to make the following changes to reduce the use of high-stakes testing:

  • End the use of annual tests for high-stakes consequences. Let’s instead use annual assessments to give parents and teachers the information they need to help students grow.
  • Use the data we collect to provide the federal government with information to direct resources to the schools and districts that need extra support. 
  • Ensure a robust accountability system that judges schools looking at multiple measures—including allowing real evidence of student learning. 
  • And finally, the federal government should not be the human resources department for local schools, and should not be in the business of regulating teacher evaluation from Washington D.C. Teacher evaluation is the district’s job.

Click here to sign AFT's petition.