My spirits soared this morning when I saw the headline in the New York Daily News: "Hell, No, we won't take another test!"
Virtually the entire 8th grade at the South Bronx's Intermediate School 318 handed in blank exam packets for a three-hour social studies practice test. The social studies teacher, Mr. Douglas Avella, is being fingered for inciting the boycott, but the students say otherwise. Here are some choice quotes from the article:
Johnny Cruz, 15: "They're saying Mr. Avella made us do this. They don't think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests."
Tatiana Nelson, 13: "We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year. They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."Tia Rivera, 14: "Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn't have the right to protest against the test. Well, we did it."
Department of Education spokesman David Cantor: "This guy [teacher Douglas Avella] was far over the line in a lot of the ways he was running his classroom. He was pulled because he was inappropriate with the kids. He was giving them messages that were inappropriate."
High-stakes testing has spiraled out of control. Test companies, under the guise of boosting accountability, are reaping millions and students are being cheated out of their precious school days. We are kidding ourselves if we think students aren't wise to this scheme. The reason we haven't seen more uprisings like the incident at I.S. 318 is that students have been intellectually and spiritually bludgeoned into submission.
Perhaps the dramatic boycott at I.S. 318 can help to bring into focus the fact that solely defining achievement via test scores (as is the current practice) is not authentic assessment. High-stakes tests, administered to students starting in early elementary school, terrify children, narrow curricula, and distort the discourse on public education. When supervisors' bonuses (or jobs) hinge on one specific factor-- test scores-- unhealthy fixation is a natural byproduct.
America's test-mania leaves out too much important stuff, and students are the losers for it. Comprehensive portfolios of standards-based student work paint an infinitely truer picture of students' growth and achievement. We can keep standardized tests, but we must leave behind the end-all, be-all nature they currently own. Going to school should be about discovering and unlocking one's potential through rigorous work in a supportive, personal environment--not an endless rehearsal for a basic skills test.
I applaud Douglas Avella's students at I.S. 318 for taking a difficult, risky stand on a high-stakes issue.
Dan Brown the author of the teacher memoir, The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.
Follow Dan Brown on Twitter: www.twitter.com/danbrownteacher
(1) the supposedly strong teachers' unions [local, state, and national levels] and the NEA would rise up as a whole and say NO MORE to NCLB and the whole testing industry,
…and
(2) among students through text messages, emails, facebook and word-o-mouth and the students would rise up as a whole and say NO MORE to NCLB and the whole testing industry … and
(3) once emboldened by their successful boycott the students would further boycott any military presence in their schools and would refuse to allow the predatory recruiters to harvest any
more of their fellow students for their corporate protection racket.
shhhh….. spread the word… make it happen
here’s the link to the article. http://tinyurl.com/5bdegt
Pass it around to any teachers or students - with the wishes.
As they say in the IEP world…. what’s the baseline? Currently [5/26/08],
google news shows this story is on 2 news
sites [Huffington Post & New York Daily News] and 311 blogs.
Downside? It is the very end of the school year. Of course, considering how email jokes and virus warnings work, there may be benefit to doing it now, before school starts in the fall, and later, a couple months into the school year.
ready… set … go
[and copy save and calendar it for a future date]
Bravo and my hat off to the kids!
Now, let's restore order: Expell the manipulated kids for one year. Fire summarily all the teachers who have even a whiff guilt of engineering the absurdity of 8th Graders defying the required tests. Mind you that it is the teachers who used the kids to justify why they themselves (the teachers) can't teach. And, as frosting on the cake, do a Reagan and disband the union in that school forthwith.
It's wonderful to hear that these kids actually care about being short-changed in their education. And what a great civics lesson - if you don't stand up for your rights, corporate profiteers will be happy to transform them into a fully monetized revenue stream.
Hooray for the savvy students and their brave instructor, Douglas Avella.
revolution. We have failed you and sold you out for a selfish agenda that benefits very few.
This is a great story so why couldn't it just be a school in the Bronx. I know it's minor but think it is added added to the story to imply an area of poverty, violence, drug dealing, etc. Not all Bronx neighborhoods are like the one I grew up in - in fact, we have some beautiful middle class neighborhoods.
I moved away in my mid-30s but still think of the Bronx as my home.
I do have fond memories of refusing to stand and do the start of the schoolday Pledge To The Flag thing for the remainder of the 10th grade after the murder of 4 Kent State Students 1970.
Bravo for the students -- I hope this new awakening is contagious.
The student who said this deserves an A+ in Social Studies:
"The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."