The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has moved into the regulation stage. Regulation-writing is a crucial part of legislation, because regulations turn the often-general language of a statute into specific required actions.

Unfortunately, the Department of Education has proposed draft regulations that would continue the test-and-punish approach to school assessment that ESSA sought to remedy. The draft regulations over-emphasize testing, mandate punishments not required in law, and continue federal micro-management of school accountability.

All of you who are concerned about test-and-punish should stand up against these regulations, by submitting official comments to the Department of Education and by e-mailing and calling your federal representatives. This will only take a few minutes, and can make a significant difference. Thanks for helping out!

For background on the problems with test-and-punish, along with links to research studies, visit our  Research on High-Stakes Testing page.