Oppose Goodlatte Amendment #74: Protect Civil Rights
Recipient: U.S. House of Representatives
Dear Representative:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, we urge you to oppose Representative Goodlatte’s Amendment #74 to H.R. 5, which would allow school districts to administer their own assessments in lieu of a single, statewide assessment. Locally developed assessments will undermine one of the central tenets of state and local efforts to raise achievement for all students: the ability to have comparable data and, as a result, know how all students, in all schools and all communities, fare on a common, objective measure of achievement.
Statewide assessments serve as a check to ensure the students who are the focus of federal law—low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, and English learners—are not being subject to lower expectations than their peers. The assessments provide parents, communities, and advocates with critical information about how well different schools and districts are serving different students, a crucial tool for monitoring and ensuring the protection of civil rights. Local assessment would not allow for these same comparisons.
We continue to oppose the underlying bill and urge you to vote against Goodlatte Amendment #74, which further weakens H.R. 5 and undermines the protections of civil rights. If you have any questions, please contact Liz King, Senior Policy Analyst and Director of Education Policy, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President