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WOW!  TN Students Taking Action Against Testing!

1/5/2016

 
Some students in Tennessee are fed up with testing.  They aren't just complaining about it to their friends wishing grown-ups would fix the problem...  these students came up with a powerful plan and are taking action!  

​We found out about these students when someone forwarded their email to Momma Bears.  The students sent this email to their teachers and to teachers at other schools:

Dear Teacher:

            As you may have noticed, the quantity and duration of standardized tests have increased astronomically in recent years. We feel that these tests take away from instructional time, waste valuable resources, constrict our curricula, and still fail to provide an accurate measure of progress that would justify the losses they incur. My peers and I have decided to try and change standardized testing policy by creating and supporting a bill to limit the damaging effects of standardized testing. We request that you help us achieve this.
            Attached to this email are a number of relevant documents. First, we have letters for parents and students to help educate them on the situation. Many parents have no idea how all-encompassing testing has become and many students are unaware of what they can do to fix it. Please copy these letters and distribute them to your students. We have written both English and Spanish versions of these letters to ensure that they reach as many people as possible.
            Second, we are providing surveys for teachers, parents, and students. In order to effect any sort of change, we need as much support as possible. Please have your students complete the surveys and bring them home to their parents to fill out. You can send the compiled information from your school to White Station High School either by email or school mail.
            We are also sending petitions to the state representatives of Tennessee asking them to reduce standardized testing. If you think standardized testing is going too far, please add your signature to the petition. Since a more personal approach carries emotional weight, we will also send a contact list for local and state representatives so that you and your students can inform them of your concerns.
            It may seem a bit far-fetched for a group of high school students to try and change government policy, but we are organized, we are prepared, we are united, and we are willing to do everything in our power to reduce standardized testing and reclaim our education.
 
Sincerely,
 

Shelby County Students
​

Pretty brilliant letter, huh?  Knowing that there is a large Hispanic population that needs this info, they even translated it into Spanish!  They wrote petitions, too, and put them on the internet so they are easily shareable on ipetitions.  These kids are serious!

Perhaps these teenagers see the uncanny resemblance to their lives and the teen-fiction movies that have become Box-office hits like Divergent and Hunger Games?  They know they are more than a test result.

These students attend White Station High School, a top-ranked public optional school in Memphis.  It is an outstanding school.  During enrollment season, parents have camped outside the district office to make sure their child gets a spot at this school.  The teachers at White Station are known to be outstanding and supportive.  In fact, it appears that these students were taught how to advocate in their Civics class through something called "Project Citizen."  
​

Here are the links to their well-reseached and well-thought-out information:
  • Letter to parents urging action and support to opt-out
  • Spanish letter to parents urging action and support to opt-out 
  • Petition supporting the OPT-OUT of testing in Tennessee
  • Petition for a Moratorium against testing
  • Thorough Spreadsheet of important people to contact including elected officials and media
  • Their overwhelming district and state testing calendar for Shelby County
  • Bless these kids!  They even know that the state-run Achievement School District is a dismal failure and they wrote a petition against it!
  • A petition against the time-consuming MAP testing they were forced to take
  • A parent survey to collect public perception on testing
  • A student survey to collect student feedback on testing
  • Signature page for people to print and manually collect signatures

Not only did these students come up with all these documents, they met with elected officials.  They want to go to Nashville to speak before Education committees.  And they are reaching out to other students across the state!

Momma Bears are inspired by the bold advocacy and determination of this next generation of leaders.  Please, help us share this across the state so their spark ignites fires in other students, parents, teachers, and elected officials.  These Tennessee students have powerful knowledge of how government works, and they know their voices are powerful if they use them.  

​
Students are going to change the world.  They aren't just the future, they are the present. 
​

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​To find out more about refusing TNReady and other standardized tests in Tennessee,
please visit our website: 

http://www.mommabears.org/choose-to-refuse-testing.html  

There is even have a special website for students:  
http://www.mommabears.org/for-students.html 


My Children, and Their Teachers, are Guilty

7/2/2014

 
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The following is a guest post from New Mexico parent, Wendy Small  (originally posted by Kris Nielsen at www.atthechalkface.com, reposted with permission)

Let me start by telling you that my children are guilty. Guilty of being born to middle class–not wealthy–parents, guilty of having special needs, guilty of being the kind of poor test takers who falsely convict their teachers of being bad at their jobs. Most of all they are guilty of being children living in New Mexico.

Perhaps the most guilty among them is my daughter, Jennifer*. She has committed the most outrageous crime of having dyslexia. Despite interventions from teachers, and thousands of dollars spent on outside diagnostics and remediation, Jennifer, age 12, continues to test “not proficient”. She is guilty, and for this both she and her teachers must pay.

Nina, Jennifer’s next youngest sister, age 10, while bright and articulate, must pay. She is guilty. Guilty of wanting so badly to get a perfect score that she will do and redo her answers. Days will go by when Nina, in the fourth grade, will sit and write and erase her answers until she explodes. Nina’s explosions are harbingers for her classmates, who know her to be a steady and capable student. They become guilty of perceiving Nina’s anxiety and inflicting it upon themselves. “It must be really hard for me if it’s hard for Nina,” they think. Then, classmates of Nina’s explode too. They cry, they yell, they come home feeling frustrated and defeated. They are punished.

The youngest of our children are not exempt; they too must be punished. I know this because Ashley, my first grader, had to endure the punishment of standardized testing as well. For her criminal act of being a child in this state, Ashley was required to sit in her chair and interpret and respond to test questions that were abstract and completely inappropriate for her developmental age. Other students in Ashley’s class must be even more guilty because when I opted Ashley out of testing and sat with her in the school office, I could hear the wailing of her classmates begging their teacher to help them understand the questions. These students were being punished for wanting to do well on their tests. To warrant that kind of experience, they must have been deemed guilty.

I am certain that Ashley’s first grade teacher is guilty, too. She was the most punished of all of them. Tears were in her eyes, frustration in her voice. Her hands were tied and her voice silenced as she unwillingly inflicted this test on her students knowing it would forever alter the emotional safety they experienced in her classroom. Ashley’s teacher is guilty of loving her students, and for this crime she was punished.

As parents, my husband and I are guilty. We decided to raise our children here, and for that we must endure the horrific consequence of watching our children be punished. Together, we must watch while the happy childhoods of our children are replaced with anxiety. We are made to stand by while their curiosity is extinguished, while they learn to fear authority, while they learn that they are “not proficient”. We are punished. As we watch the promise of three bright futures fade, we are beaten.

The good news is that, while my children are guilty, they area not as guilty as the 29% of New Mexico children who commit the criminal act of being poor. For their criminal acts, poor children are the most punished. I know this because teachers, for many [these kids'] only reliable adults, are leaving at a rapid rate. Approximately 500 teachers will leave APS alone this year, many of them from schools with children who have committed the criminal act of being poor. [Seeing] the way they are being punished–these children and their teacher–they must be criminals.

Please free our children, offer them amnesty and, in so doing, liberate us all. This is a punitive system where schools, once safe havens, have become jails. Principals serve as unwilling wardens, and the [state education department] is the head of our prison system. Please shed light on this reality by paying attention, spreading the word and serving as advocates for children in our community. We are all called to be up to the task, our children are crying for the childhoods they deserve. The clock is ticking, and time is running out. Teachers are not speaking out because they are terrified that it will harm the job and schools they love. Ask them to speak, and listen. Use your voices and protect our schools, protect our teachers, protect our children.

*All names have been changed


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    Momma Bears

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