Through the efforts of Maggie Hagan, an elementary classroom teacher in Warren City Schools and an active member of our OPT/OSRC group, the first major victory in our group's mission to eliminate Ohio's invalid and unjust system of proficiency testing took place in Columbus on Saturday, December 4 at the OEA delegate assembly in Columbus, Ohio. Maggie's initiative, which started at the NEOEA assembly in November, culminated in Columbus with a unanimous floor vote by the delegates to support the resolution.
      Hagan's bold, but thoughtful work returns a sense of teacher advocacy to the OEA on the most important issue ever faced by Ohio's teachers and students. It also opens OEA to responding and working with the OPT study findings when they are released to the public early in 2000. This resolution is the first formal statement of opposition to OPT since the legislation was established by the state. We expect this resolution to end the long period of silence and duplicity by the leadership of the OEA.
      Personally, I could not be happier or prouder that this aggressive act of teacher advocacy comes from an experienced classroom teacher who has taken the OPT/OSRC graduate workshop and who is active as member of the group who will release the research findings with me early in 2000 and at the Teaching Learning Conference 2000 in Columbus in late April. We all owe Maggie Hagan a personal and professional "Thank You" for fighting the good fight and for securing a victory in the first round... Thanks, Maggie!
      Thought there are many more battles to come on a variety of fronts, I want all of us to embrace this first giant step forward and use it as a reminder that one person can make a real difference in fighting for justice... and there are more of us to come. I beg all of you to personally let your district OEA delegate representatives know that you are aware of the resolution and support the affirmative votes these delegates cast. This is our way of holding OEA accountable and of supporting the renewal of teacher advocacy within the union.

OEA Delegate Assembly: Substitute Motion for NB-2
(Motion Passed Unanimously)

OEA's members share the aspirations of most Ohioans for a public education system that provides a world-class education for Ohio's school children.

Our members believe that despite good intentions, the present Ohio Proficiency Tests include assessments of questionable validity and have actually reduced the quality of learning for many Ohio students.

We call upon the General Assembly and the Governor to enact an accountability program which would provide for:

1. A system of student standards which incorporates realistic high expectations for student learning;
2. A curricula aligned with those standards;
3. The resources needed to implement the curricula; and
4. Valid, reliable, age-appropriate assessment instruments which will fairly measure students' attainment of the standards.

The focus of the assessment program must be on helping students to achieve and not on punishing students, teachers, and schools.

At each step in this process, classroom practitioners need to participate. Their involvement must not be merely cosmetic, but must allow for pre K and K-12 teachers to substantively affect the outcome of each component of the process outlined here.

OEA is prepared to work with all stakeholders in this reform effort.

Until implemented, OEA calls for a moratorium on testing.