Full Text of HR0170 102nd General Assembly
HR0170 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives wish to express our grave concerns and those | 4 | | of our constituents about the unfairness of testing during the | 5 | | 2020-2021 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic; | 6 | | specifically, testing that will begin on March 15, 2021; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, When COVID-19 hit a year ago, businesses, | 8 | | churches, and schools, to name a few, closed; it was | 9 | | devastating to business owners, consumers, and families; | 10 | | students, in particular, have been negatively affected in many | 11 | | ways, both in and out of the classroom; very limited teaching | 12 | | and learning took place during the 4th quarter of the | 13 | | 2019-2020 school year; in some areas, students have had no | 14 | | access to computers or the internet; consequently, these | 15 | | students have been learning very little and, in some cases, | 16 | | nothing; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, At this point in the 2020-2021 school year, some | 18 | | districts have offered hybrid learning; some are fully | 19 | | in-person; some are fully remote; some are a combination; even | 20 | | a year after the onset of COVID-19 restrictions, school | 21 | | districts everywhere are still trying to determine the safest | 22 | | method for teaching their students; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, There are several concerns if standardized | 2 | | testing proceeds during this school year, including the | 3 | | validity of the test results and the fairness of test scores to | 4 | | mark the students' success and to determine teachers' | 5 | | accountability; we have seen no valid reason for testing under | 6 | | these circumstances,; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Some other testing options have been discussed; | 8 | | one is for students to be tested on Saturdays; another is for | 9 | | testing to take place in the month of June; a third option is | 10 | | for students to be tested in the fall of 2021 as well as in the | 11 | | spring of 2022; two standardized testing sessions in one | 12 | | school year for students who may be returning to a "normal" | 13 | | school year would be overwhelming; again, none of these | 14 | | accommodations truly accommodate the children; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, Parents have told us that their children are | 16 | | struggling just to complete homework that, in some cases, is | 17 | | extremely excessive; on top of learning the lessons being | 18 | | taught and then doing homework, they are experiencing Zoom | 19 | | fatigue due to the dependence of using the video platform to | 20 | | learn; parents and teachers alike are very distressed by the | 21 | | decision to still test; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, Students across the United States are being | 23 | | taught in the most widely diverse methods that we adults have |
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| 1 | | ever known; they are already traumatized by all of the | 2 | | above-mentioned situations; they are experiencing enough | 3 | | stress by what is going on in our world; they do not need the | 4 | | stress of test taking for which many have not had appropriate | 5 | | exposure to the content being tested; although their education | 6 | | has been dramatically changed, the tests have not, nor is | 7 | | there time to rewrite and standardize them; therefore, be it
| 8 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 9 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 10 | | we request the U.S. Department of Education exempt Illinois | 11 | | schools from taking the state mandated standardized tests in | 12 | | the spring of 2021; and be it further
| 13 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 14 | | delivered to the U.S. Department of Education.
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