create a task force consisting of currently teaching, experienced classroom teachers to help set education policy.

As educators, we have watched numerous education policies put in place that don't seem to really address the issues that both students and educators struggle/contend with on a day-to-day basis. The testing rarely tests or rewards critical thinking skills, it has few readings of any value or interest, which leads to zoning out and guessing, and it forces many teachers to alter their classrooms to "teach to the tests." Worse still, the students rarely feel vested in the results and easily lose their focus or the drive to do well on such long and too-frequently-recurring tests. We have no real problem with the concept that teachers be expected to increase the skills of the students in their charge, but would like to be a part of the conversation that creates the policy.