The Connecticut Education Association- or the state’s largest teacher organization representing 43,000 teachers- has launched a campaign against the state’s standardized tests.

Calling the state’s exams unreliable, the union is using television and digital ads to raise support for a decreased reliance on testing in the classroom.

In the first commercial of the campaign set to air this weekend, the union focuses on the important role teachers have in inspiring children and emphasizes that standardized tests take away from a teacher’s ability to do so.

"The ad features teachers from across the state interacting with students in the classroom showing how teachers inspire a love of learning in their students,” says the CEA’s website.

In January of this year the CEA called for state legislators to begin the process of dumping the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) permanently, calling it “lengthy” and “invalid.”

The CEA isn’t the first teachers union to launch a campaign against state exams.

In early 2015, New Jersey’s largest teacher union launched a six week campaign targeting the use of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) in the state.

The campaign featured several 30-second advertisements that focused on teachers expressing their concerns, criticizing tests for “causing stress in children, narrowing education, and taking time and resources from other subjects and programs.”

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

4/1/2016