1.1 	A resolution
1.2 	urging the President and Congress to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary 
1.3 	Education Act.
1.4 	WHEREAS, our nation's future relies on a high-quality public education system that prepares 
1.5 	all students for successful lives and strengthens the nation's social and economic well-being; and 
1.6 	WHEREAS, our schools have been spending growing amounts of time, money, and energy 
1.7 	on standardized testing and using information from those tests to make high-stakes decisions 
1.8 	about our students, educators, and schools; and 
1.9 	WHEREAS, the overreliance on high-stakes testing in state and federal accountability 
1.10 	systems is undermining educational quality and equity in United States public schools by 
1.11 	hampering educators' efforts to focus on the broad range of learning experiences that promote 
1.12 	the innovation, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, 
1.13 	and deep subject-matter knowledge that will allow students to thrive in a democracy and an 
1.14 	increasingly global society and economy; and 
1.15 	WHEREAS, it is widely recognized that standardized testing is an inadequate and often 
1.16 	unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness; and 
1.17 	WHEREAS, the overemphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral 
1.18 	damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing 
1.19 	love of learning, pushing students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession, 
1.20 	and undermining school climate; and 
2.1 	WHEREAS, high-stakes standardized testing has negative effects for students from all 
2.2 	backgrounds, and especially for low-income students, English language learners, children of 
2.3 	color, and those with disabilities; and 
2.4 	WHEREAS, grade-span testing would help reduce that burden but still get the data school 
2.5 	educators, parents, and policy makers need to make sure historically underserved students are 
2.6 	making academic progress; NOW, THEREFORE, 
2.7 	BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it calls on the President 
2.8 	and the Congress of the United States to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education 
2.9 	Act (currently known as the "No Child Left Behind Act") and reduce the testing mandates by 
2.10 	adopting grade-span testing. This approach tests each student, in each subject, once in elementary 
2.11 	school, once in middle school, and once in high school to give educators more time to teach and 
2.12 	connect one-on-one with students.
2.13 	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is 
2.14 	directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United 
2.15 	States, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk 
2.16 	of the United States House of Representatives, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, 
2.17 	Education, Labor, and Pensions, the chair of the House Committee on Education, and Minnesota's 
2.18 	Senators and Representatives in Congress.