DOE downgrades Berkshire Hills, Southern Berkshire schools for low participation rates in standardized tests

“We are punished over high stakes tests that do not augment our kids’ educations but only give the state more control over local funds. This is all about power and the market forces at play with high stakes testing companies, forces that did not exist before No Child Left Behind [2001].”

— Maria Rundle, Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee member and mother of three students in the New Marlborough Elementary School