By Anthony Cody. I have received a training document from a recent conclave of corporate reformers that reveals in great detail how they would like to shape public discourse around the issue of testing. In recent years the ways in which complex issues are framed has become a central task for those seeking to …
“Remember that fear is natural, but there is greater fear in knowing what will happen if we don’t take a stand.” – Jia Lee The following is a War Report on Public Education and Living in Dialogue exclusive interview with Jia Lee. By Lucianna Sanson. Jia Lee, a special …
By Julianna Krueger Dauble. This statement was delivered to the Renton School District Board of Education on Wednesday, January 28. (see details here.) Public Education Stakeholders, Are we willing to stand by while 2/3 of our children fail a state mandated test? Are our children so similar to business …
By Judy Dotson. This statement was delivered to the Renton School District Board of Education on Wednesday, January 28. (see details here.) I come from a family of low-income, minimally educated parents. My mother’s education ended at the equivalent of 7th grade. She had 13 brothers and sisters. They were a farm …
By Becca Ritchie. This statement was delivered to the Renton School District Board of Education on Wednesday, January 28. (see details here.) Martin Luther King said “Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must …
The following is the full statement delivered to the Renton School Board on Wednesday, Jan. 28, by David Spring, in conjunction with presentations by four Renton teachers who delivered statements of professional conscience, declaring their unwillingness to administer standardized tests this spring (more details …
By Anthony Cody and Susan DuFresne. Four Seattle area teachers who got to know one another in 2011, when they all attended the Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC, stood before the Renton Board of Education and read “statements of professional conscience” in which they pledged their refusal to …
By John Thompson. Valerie Strauss does a great service for students and schools by showcasing the “small but growing number of teachers who are refusing to administer standardized tests that they think are harmful to their students and publicly explaining why they are doing so, sometimes at the risk of being …
By Francesca Blueher. Six years ago, I administered a 12 hour, 100-page test that could not be read by a single student who was mandated to take it. This test, the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA), was composed of multiple choice questions; reading passages to be answered with short responses; …
By Denisha Jones. As many parents prepare to send their child(ren) off to school this year they are hopeful that their children will return home each day with reports that they learned something new or made a new friend. Unfortunately for many parents their children will come home and report that they spent the …
