Garfield alum and Rethinking Schools editor Wayne Au has taught me an immeasurable amount about testing, education, and friendship. His consultations were crucial to this project. I would also like to thank the entire Rethinking Schools team for their support and for teaching me how to be a social justice education editor.
Without the mentorship of the great activist educators Michele Bollinger, Jeff Bale, Ben Dalbey, and Sarah Knopp, I wouldn’t have had the theoretical tools or courage needed to fight for our schools. I am thankful that my greatest teachers—Paulette Thompson, Clay Steinman, Leola Johnson—knew I was more than my test scores and showed me the power of pedagogy to transform lives.
Without the support of my parents, this book would have never happened. Amy, Gerald, Dean, and Steve provided me with an upbringing that stressed the importance of education and activism. Amy and Dean were my first editors, taught me how to write, and gave me invaluable edits and feedback on this book. My mother-in-law Martha was extraordinarily generous with her support, encouragement, and care for my children, without which I wouldn’t have finished this project.
Finally, the love of my family generated the energy to create this book. My sons, Miles and Satchel, have taught me so much about learning, human development, and myself—and their smiles powered the completion of this project. My wife, Sarah, my greatest collaborator, believed that I could be a success even when my test scores had me convinced I wasn’t intelligent. Sarah’s talents, insights, and support have made it possible for me to be an author and an activist.
About the Contributors
Alma Flor Ada, Professor Emerita at the University of San Francisco, has devoted her life to advocacy for peace by promoting a pedagogy oriented to personal realization and social justice. A former Radcliffe Scholar at Harvard University and Fulbright Research Scholar, she is an internationally renowned speaker. Flor’s numerous children’s books of poetry, narrative, folklore, and nonfiction have received prestigious awards; among them the Christopher Medal (The Gold Coin), Pura Belpré Medal (Under the Royal Palms), Once Upon a World (Gathering the Sun), Parents’ Choice Honor (Dear Peter Rabbit), NCSS and CBC Notable Book (My Name Is María Isabel), Marta Salotti Gold Medal (Encaje de piedra).
Wayne Au, a former public high school social studies and language arts teacher, is an assistant professor in the School of Education Studies at the University of Washington, Bothell Campus. He is editor of Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice, coeditor of Rethinking Our Classrooms, volume 1, and writes regularly for Rethinking Schools. Wayne is also author and editor of many academic articles and books, the most recent book of which is Critical Curriculum Studies: Curriculum, Consciousness, and the Politics of Knowing (Routledge, 2011).
Carol Burris has served as principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District in New York since 2000. Carol received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2010, the National Association of Secondary Schools Principals recognized her as their Outstanding Educator of the Year, and in 2013 she was again recognized by NASSP as the New York State High School Principal of the Year. Carol has coauthored two books on educational equity, and her third book is On the Same Track: How Schools can Join the 21st Century (Beacon Press). Articles that she has authored or coauthored have appeared in Educational Leadership, the Kappan, American Educational Research Journal, Theory into Practice, School Administrator, and EdWeek. Carol frequently blogs for the Washington Post.
Nancy Carlsson-Paige is an educator, author, and activist. She is Professor Emerita at Lesley University, where she taught teachers for more than thirty years and cofounded Lesley’s Center for Peaceable Schools. Nancy has written five books and numerous articles on media and technology, conflict resolution, peaceable classrooms, and education reform. She advocates for education policies and practices that promote social justice and equity for all children.
Sarah Chambers is a special education teacher, union leader, and rabble-rouser for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and within CORE, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators. She has taught at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy in Chicago Public Schools for five years. As a proud member of the CTU Executive Board, bargaining team, and House of Delegates, Sarah is a firm supporter of social justice for all workers and students.
Mallory Clarke is a reading specialist at Garfield High in Seattle. Her roles have included high school teacher, political activist, wildlife tracker, college professor, ABE teacher, and parent. In her classroom, students have advanced as much as nine grade levels in reading in only two semesters. She is coauthor with Melody Schneider of Dimensions of Change: An Authentic Assessment Guidebook (Peppercorn Press).
Jeanette Deutermann is a parent advocate, education activist, and mother of two boys, ages seven and ten. She is the cofounder of New York State Allies for Public Education (www.nysape.org) and the founder and administrator of the Facebook group “Long Island Opt Out Info,” which currently has more than fourteen thousand members.
Rosie Frascella is an activist with the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) and the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE). She teaches English at the International High School at Prospect Heights.
Alexia Garcia graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, in 2013 and matriculated at Vassar College in fall 2014. Alexia served as the 2012–2013 student representative on the Portland Public School’s Board of Education. Throughout high school Alexia organized with the Portland Public Schools Student Union and the Portland Student Union. Alexia currently interns with the Portland Association of Teachers.
Emily Giles has been a teacher and union activist since 2002. Since moving to New York City in 2006, she has been active in the education justice movement. She currently teaches at a public high school in Brooklyn, New York. As a founding member of MORE (Movement of Rank and File Educators), she fights for the rights of teachers and students and for a different vision of rank-and-file unionism in the UFT.
Nikhil Goyal is an activist and author of a forthcoming book on learning. He lives in New York. He has appeared as a commentator on MSNBC and FOX and has written for the New York Times, MSNBC, NPR, and Forbes. An international speaker, Goyal has spoken at Google, The Atlantic, Fast Company, NBC, MIT, Stanford University, Barnard College, SXSW, and others.
Helen Gym is a community and education leader whose work supports the right to a quality public education for all children. She is a cofounder of Parents United for Public Education, a citywide parent group focused on equitable school budgets. Helen also leads the board of Asian Americans United, focused on youth leadership, community development, and advocacy for Philadelphia’s Asian American and immigrant communities.
Photo credit: Truman Buffett
Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the co-adviser of the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013. He is an associate editor of Rethinking Schools, a founding member of Social Equality Educators, and winner of the national 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of Year” award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences. He is a contributing author to Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation and 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History, and writes regularly for Truthout, Common Dreams, Socialist Worker, Black Agenda Report, and the Seattle Times op-ed page.
Brian Jones taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years and is currently pursuing a doctorate in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He contributed to the book Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation and co-narrated the film The Inconvenient Truth Behind “Waiting for Superman.” He is also a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers. In 2014, he ran for lieutenant governor of New York with the Green Party.
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. H
is thirteenth book is The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Children and Parenting (2014). Kohn has been described in TIME magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” The father of two children, he lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.
Amber Kudla is currently a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she majors in chemistry.
John Kuhn is the superintendent of schools in the little Perrin-Whitt District in Texas and a vocal advocate for public education. His “Alamo Letter” and speeches at a Save Texas Schools rally and the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC, went viral, as did his essay “The Exhaustion of the American Teacher.” His books include Test-and-Punish (Park Place Publications) and Fear and Learning in America (Teachers College Press).
Jia Lee teaches fourth and fifth grades at the Earth School in New York City, which her son also attended. She is a leading member of two organizations working to oppose high-stakes testing, Change the Stakes and Teachers of Conscience, and an activist with MORE.
Karen Lewis is the president of the Chicago Teachers Union. A member of CTU since 1988, Lewis taught high school chemistry in the Chicago Public Schools for twenty-two years. She believes that students, parents, teachers, and community members are educators’ natural allies. Her goal is to truly improve Chicago Public Schools and stand firmly against the privatization of public education. Lewis comes from a family of educators—her father, mother, and husband, John Lewis, all were CPS teachers.
Malcolm London, called the Gil-Scott Heron of this generation by Cornel West, is a young Chicago poet, performer, activist, and educator. Malcolm has shared stages with actors Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and artist Lupe Fiasco as a part of the The People Speak, Live! cast. Malcolm is a passionate teaching artist on staff at Young Chicago Authors. He visits schools, introducing their work to hundreds of students through writing workshops and performances.
Barbara Madeloni is a teacher educator and activist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Through activist groups Can’t Be Neutral and ReClaiming the Conversation on Education, she develops conferences and workshops to educate and organize resistance to the neoliberal assault on education. She blogs at @The Chalkface.
Cauldierre McKay was a senior at Classical High School and executive board member of the Providence Student Union during the time of writing. When not organizing his peers for better schools or speaking truth to power, he likes to debate, learn various crafts at New Urban Arts, and sightsee around Providence in the early morning. Cauldierre is currently a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mark Naison is a professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, author most recently of Badass Teachers Unite! Reflections on Education, History, and Youth Activism (Haymarket, 2014), coauthor with Melissa Castillo-Garsow of Pure Bronx (Augustus Publishing, 2013), and a cofounder of the Badass Teachers Association.
Monty Neill, EdD, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), has led FairTest’s work on testing in the public schools since 1987. He has initiated national and state coalitions of education, civil rights, religious, disability, and parent organizations to work toward fundamental change in the assessment of students and in accountability. He chairs the national Forum on Educational Accountability. Under his leadership, FairTest has collaborated on testing reform efforts with organizations in many states. Among dozens of publications, he is lead author of Failing Our Children, Implementing Performance Assessments: A Guide to Classroom School and System Reform, and Testing Our Children: A Report Card on State Assessment Systems. He has taught and been an administrator in preschool, high school, and college, and he is a grandfather of three children in the public schools.
Photo credit: Jack Miller
Diane Ravitch is a historian of education and previously served as the US assistant secretary of education. She is research professor of education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her most recent book is Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (Knopf, 2013). She is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. She also blogs on educational issues at dianeravitch.net.
Aaron Regunberg is the executive director of the Providence Student Union, a youth-led student organizing program in Providence, Rhode Island. A graduate of Brown University, Aaron is a community organizer with experience organizing a range of direct action, legislative, and electoral campaigns.
Mary Cathryn Ricker is the president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers and the executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers. She grew up in a family of teachers on Minnesota’s Iron Range and recognizes the power of labor unions to improve peoples’ lives as well as the power of good teaching and strong public schools.
Stephanie Rivera is a student at Rutgers Graduate School of Education in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She is an educational justice activist and future social studies teacher. She blogs at Teacher Under Construction.
Kirstin Roberts is a preschool teacher and parent of a young child in the Chicago Public Schools. She is a proud member of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE).
Peggy Robertson serves as president of United Opt Out. She has taught various grades from kindergarten through sixth, beginning her career in Missouri and continuing in Kansas, for a total of ten years. She earned her master’s degree in English as a Second Language at Southeast Missouri State University. She currently is an instructional coach at an elementary school and devotes the rest of her time to her work at United Opt Out National. Her blog can be found at www.pegwithpen.com.
Falmata Seid was a Black Student Union Senator at Garfield High School and a student leader in the MAP test boycott. He wrote the poem “Modern-Day Slavery” during the MAP test boycott and has performed it at press conferences, college campuses, and conferences around the Northwest. Falmata is currently attending Washington State University.
Tim Shea was a seventeen-year-old senior at Classical High School during the time of writing. After realizing how many hours of his education he had wasted taking standardized tests, he joined the Providence Student Union and was a member of its Citywide Leadership Team. When not fighting for student rights, he enjoyed either catching or receiving on Classical’s varsity baseball and football teams. Tim is currently a student at Harvard University.
Phyllis Tashlik was an English teacher for more than thirty years in the New York City public schools. As part of her work for the New York Performance Standards Consortium, she has served as director of the Center for Inquiry for Teaching and Learning, the consortium’s professional development center. She has authored a number of books, including Hispanic, Female and Young, Active Voices II, and Back to the Books, with Ann Cook.
Dao X. Tran, a product of the Philadelphia public school system from kindergarten through twelfth grade, is an editor based in New York City, where she lives with her daughter. Dao coedited 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History (Haymarket, 2012) with Michele Bollinger and is working on the Teacher Oral History Project. She served as co-chair of the Castle Bridge School PTA in 2013–14.
NOTES
Preface
1. Rebecca Klein, “Joey Furlong, Fourth Grade Student, Asked to Take State Test While in the Hospital,” Huffington Post, May 1, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/joey-furlong-state-test-hospital-new-york_n_3193933.html.
2. Howard Nelson, Testing More, Teaching Less: What America’s Obsession with Student Testing Costs in Money and Lost Instructional Time (Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers, 2013), http://www.aft.org/pdfs/teachers/testingmore2013.pdf.
3.
As of this writing, Rhee has stepped down from the active leadership of StudentsFirst, though she remains on the board of directors. Many critics view Rhee’s move away from the organization she founded as a retreat on the part of the corporate education reform forces that she represents.
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