10 LA schools could stop standardized tests after board president calls testing industry 'repugnant’

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted 4-3 Tuesday on a resolution that would allow 10 schools to opt out of standardized tests and test preparation beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

LAUSD President Jackie Goldberg read during the Tuesday morning board meeting that the resolution stipulates that once the schools "develop and pilot innovative, authentic, rigorous and relevant" assessments, the schools "will be excused from any standardized testing with the exception of state and federally mandated assessments."

Goldberg, who "hoped" for the resolution to be adopted before leaving her post as president, said that the measure would "begin to change how we look at student assessment." She said that she is "not against assessment."

However, the official with 18 years experience in teaching explained what she called the "testing industry," which spends billions of dollars every year to "continuously find ways to continue to increase by a few points, here and there, scores on standardized tests."

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She went on to say during the board meeting that "corporate America" decided that standardized tests would "judge all of what’s going on in schools."

Goldberg added that "we began to have an industry providing enormous amount of materials: tests, practice tests, practice-practice tests and regional tests; middle-school-year tests, end-of-the-year tests; tests to take when you’re on the way to school; tests when you’re in the bathroom — test wherever you could."

Furthermore, Goldberg, who is not running for reelection and will retire at the end of the year, said that standardized tests undermine the "enjoyment of education" among other things.

"Because the whole goal of life became not the love of learning, not the enjoyment of education, not the exchange of ideas, but whether or not your school could move up on its test scores."

"For at least 20 years, I have found that repugnant," said Goldberg.

 "We’ll get everybody ready all the time for testing. And I think we’re doing great harm." 

Goldberg’s colleagues criticized the measure.

One board member who voted no on the measure disagreed with Goldberg, citing "declining enrollment" and "limited resources."

"I do appreciate what you’re trying to do," Board member Nick Melvoin said. 

"One of the challenges is ... a few various tensions within the district right now ... I do think you can’t manage what you can’t measure."

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"We also are entering a period of limited resources and declining enrollment, and trying to understand what works, and having that common language about what works," he added.

"The university professors are not going to water it down and not test them," George McKenna, who voted no, said. "You have to take tests to work in the post office."

McKenna went on to say, "Gifting children with the absence of assessment is not a gift. It is also a political statement that says we don’t want our teachers being exposed. They’re not really teaching our children to be competitive, because the standardized test says all children in the country at the same time take the same test."

Another board member, Rocio Rivas, read letters from fifth graders who objected to the standardized tests.

The resolution requires the district to establish a Supporting Meaningful Teaching and Learning Initiative. Up to 10 schools could show that assessment measures could be implemented at the local level by teachers and administrators. School staff could track students’ academic performance without being burdened by preparing for standardized tests.

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The initiative appoints a "lead teacher" who would undergo additional professional development from Community School Coaches and the University of California Los Angeles Center for Community Schooling.

According to the resolution, the 10 schools also have to "integrate culturally relevant curriculum, community- and project-based learning, and civic engagement" into their programs. The second-largest school district in the nation, LAUSD presides over 600,000 students at over 1,000 schools.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the measure could conflict with the LAUSD superintendent's standard of analyzing test scores as data to evaluate schools. 

LAUSD officials did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.