The Catskill Chronicle

WASHINGTON, DC (January 27, 2014) – Congressman Chris Gibson (NY-19) and Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-9) have announced the reintroduction of the Student Testing Improvement & Accountability Act, which empowers state and local school systems by reducing the frequency of federally-mandated assessments in U.S. schools.

The bipartisan legislation was introduced on January 21.

“My constituents have overwhelmingly expressed their concerns with the recent shift in education policy from a focus on teaching to a focus on testing,” said Congressman Gibson. “Parents and educators across Upstate New York know that maintaining this approach will continue to hamstring our teachers and students.”

“My experience as a social worker in Arizona schools for nearly a decade taught me the importance of empowering teachers and parents,” said Congresswoman Sinema. “Teachers should focus on to the content they want their students to master—not simply material for an upcoming standardized test.”

The Student Testing Improvement & Accountability Act replaces current annual testing requirements for math and language arts with the exact same grade-span testing requirements in current law for science classes.

This returns federal testing requirements to the once-per-grade-span standards established before 2001, when math and reading assessments were typically conducted once in grades 3-5, once in grades 6-9, and once in grades 10-12. Under the law, states would retain the ability to exceed federal testing requirements if they seek to do so.

The National Education Association (NEA), which represents 3 million educators across the country, announced its support for the bill.

“The over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing students out of school and driving teachers out of the profession,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. “This bill by Rep. Gibson and Rep. Sinema would help put a stop to these negative consequences and help ensure that all students succeed.”

The Student Testing Improvement & Accountability Act was first introduced last year, during the 113^th Congress.