Brown's Assessment Bill Veto Statement Shines Light On Testing Views

An analysis in the San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune (10/11, Gardner) takes note of the veto statement that California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) released as he struck down a bill that would have "added different gauges to the traditional yardstick known as the Academic Performance Index, or API, that now tracks school success based on test scores exclusively. 'Adding more speedometers to a broken car won't turn it into a high-performance machine,' Brown wrote in his veto message." The piece explores the issues that led to the legislation, and further examines Brown's statement, which "reflected a long labor, perhaps driven by lessons learned after launching a pair of charter schools as mayor of Oakland. In it, Brown was at once sympathetic to the testing reform cause and unsparingly critical of those behind the campaign."