Why I Am Going to DC April 4-7

JIM HORN: WHY I AM COMING TO OCCUPY THE DEPT. OF ED. IN DC

Posted on March 3, 2013

I am coming to ODOE2 to remember and honor so many who cannot come and for so many of the forgotten victims of high stakes standardized testing.

I am coming to DC for that Louisiana 4^th grader in 2002 whose heart could be heard pounding across the desk by the teacher who had to tell him he would be in the 4^th grade for the third time because he didn’t pass the state test.

I am coming to DC for that other 4^th grade child who scooted from his wheelchair and hid under the bed, for god’s sakes, because he was ashamed to tell his mother he had failed the test again.

I am coming to DC for unknown numbers of the kids who have hurt themselves because a test labeled them as failures.

I am coming to DC for those in prison who learned failure at an early age by high stakes testing.

I am coming to DC for the parents who attended all the “Lean on Jesus” test prep prayer meetings hoping for a miracle.

I am coming to DC for the tens of thousands of teachers and principals whose health has been ruined from pressure cooker classrooms and offices.

I am coming to DC for the Georgia Title I principal, Betty Robinson, who blew out her brains when her school missed the state test expectations by a few points.

I am coming to DC for the millions of disadvantaged children who have been confined in apartheid total compliance corporate reform testing camps in the name of educational justice.

I am coming to DC for Daemonte Driver, the DC child whose test scores were more important than the tooth infection and lack of dental care that killed him.

I am coming to DC for the hundreds of thousands of insulted, fired, and abused teachers who have been blamed for a failed and unaccountable testing and accountability policy that now demands another generation of our children to be sacrificed for the benefit of profiteers and ideologues.

And they will be sacrificed unless we stand in the breach to stop it, and then to build what is possible only when high-stakes testing ends.

Protesting Arne at Harvard

From WickedLocal Cambridge:

Cambridge —Last Thursday, Harvard graduate and current U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was honored as the Chief Marshall of his alma mater’s graduation ceremonies.

Traditionally, the Chief Marshal for Harvard Commencement is elected from the class that is celebrating its 25th reunion, according to the Harvard News Service. Duncan, who graduated in 1986, was elected to the post by his classmates.

But for a handful of educators and activists just outside the university gates, the event wasn’t a reason for celebration.

Close to 60 protesters gathered in Harvard Square to speak up against Duncan’s policies as secretary of education — policies, they said, that depend too much on standardized testing.

“We are here to let the world know about the problems that he’s caused for our teachers and our families,” Liza Womack said. Womack — herself a Harvard alum, an elementary schoolteacher and an organizer for Speak out for Public Education — emceed speeches by educators, activists and local politicians.

Many of the speeches were critical of the federal Race to the Top program, which awards grant funding to states that meet certain criteria, including developing testing standards to evaluate teacher performance.

In his speech, Alfie Kohn called the program “operation discourage bright people from wanting to teach.”

“There’s so much more to education and public education than what you can measure in a standardized test,” Cambridge School Committee member Marc McGovern said just before the protests started. “We are losing creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills. We have to focus on all the things that don’t fit into a nice, neat little box.”

In a fiery speech of his own, former City Councilor and current council candidate Larry Ward urged the crowd to “keep fighting, keep fighting and keep fighting.”

“Arne, get out of our lives and get out of education,” he said.

Copyright 2011 Cambridge Chronicle. Some rights reserved

Read more: During Harvard commencement, crowd protests U.S. education secretary - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/archive/x311053405/During-Harvard-commencement-crowd-protests-U-S-education-secretary#ixzz1NycUcno9