Anti-PSSA Coalition Forming in Main Line School Districts

A coalition seems to be forming among public school parents on the Main Line who wish to opt-out their children from taking the state’s standardized tests, according to Newsworks.org.

For the next two weeks, most students in Pennsylvania public schools will break out their number two pencils and work on a series of exams designed to measure their average yearly progress, a measurement that can affect the level of state funding a district receives.

The pressure on students to perform well on the tests has convinced an increasing number of parents at the Lower Merion School District to opt their children out of taking the PSSAs and Keystone exams, Newsworks reports.

According to the report, 200 students will not take the tests this year, jumping up from only a dozen last year. Parents told reporters that a larger movement is forming with families in Radnor and Tredyffrin/Easttown school district.

One of the catalysts for the surge seems to be the popularity of a documentary film created by a Berks County teacher in 2013, ”Standardized Lies, Money & Civil Rights: How Testing Is Ruining Public Education.” The director, Dan Hornberger, told the Patriot-News in February that he created the movie to get parents angry about standardized tests.

The film screened in Bryn Mawr earlier this year, according to Newsworks, and another screening organized by Tredyffrin/Easttown parents is scheduled for the Saturday Club in Wayne on April 27 at 7 p.m. A call to the Pennsylvania Department of Education was not returned.