They came, we came! Grey haired retirees, union presidents (yes,
that IS Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers' Union),
administrators, student poets, teachers who quit rather than continue
the abuse excessive testing imposes on the most vulnerable students (and
all the rest), professors of education, students who organized walk
outs in protest of the tests, authors, librarians, musicians, lawyers,
parents, grandparents, graduate students of education, education
historians, patient spouses (mine!), and more. Susan Polos, librarian in
the Bedford School District, pulled me into this and I cannot begin to
express my gratitude to her.
It was a small but
powerful group gathered in front of the imposing Department of
Education fortress. So much information: dots connected that reveal the
deliberate unravelling of public education.
Some folks to read in books or on blogs: Diane Ravitch (http://dianeravitch.net),
Lois Weiner, Stephen Krashen, Sam Anderson, Nancy Carlsson-Paige. I
encourage you to look at the United Opt Out website. We can begin to
dismantle this takeover of education by corporations bent on making
millions/billions from their irrelevant tests that harm our children.
Remind all parents of children in public schools: their children's data
including test scores, any services received, SS#s is for sale to the
Gates foundation, Rupert Murdoch, and all the testing companies. It is
possible for parents to opt out of these tests---and schools are
required to provide an alternative learning environment for the testing
time.
The Common Core State Standards are
another travesty: Created largely by a representative of a testing
corporation and without a single early childhood educator---which
explains why they are so developmentally inappropriate. I've heard, but
haven't yet verified, that there actually wasn't a single educator in
their development.
What you can do:
Write
letters to local newspapers, congressional representatives, state
education commissioner, senators, Arne Duncan (whose ties to big testing
companies are mind boggling).
Onward!
Melissa H.
