High stakes testing is racist. 

We call on The Board of Regents to cancel Spring 2021 Regents for all high school students and New York State to halt the Spring 2021 3rd-8th grade state tests. 

Every year it perpetuates discrimination against already marginalized groups in society. This year, COVID-19 has made our students and educators' learning and working conditions also their living conditions, which means drastic differences in access to resources. 

Here’s why we’re saying #FtheTest: 

1. A score on a standardized test says more about a student’s income than their abilities, growth or potential.
2. A student who attends a school overflowing with resources like elective courses and teachers with advanced degrees in subject areas, takes the same test as a student whose school is squeezed into half a floor on a building, with a first year teacher, and swarms of police officers.
3. Students spend thousands of hours preparing for standardized exams designed by testing companies who have no stake in their future or education.
4. Standardized tests create an environment of fear and punishment similar to policing in schools which discriminates against Black and Latinx students specifically.
5. Teachers who focus on test performance are valued more than those who invest in transformative learning, relationships, racial justice, and healing.

Eliminating standardized tests is a key to a just school system.