I’d love to think so, but really can’t say. Here are a few points for the “things might be changing” team.

1.  The unified body of teachers at Garfield High in Seattle refused to administer the standardized test (MAP), because they don’t believe it’s a good use of their students’ time or a fair measure for what it’s being used to measure.

2. My TLN colleagues are discussing the issue of testing and the movement at Garfield High at Teaching Ahead: Testing at a Crossroads (EdWeek Teacher). Check it out.

3. But I bet you didn’t you see THIS! A student demonstration against the MECAP test as graduation requirement in Providence, RI, in which students marched in full zombie attire! Filmed and reported by the Providence Journal.

 

(Sidenote: A piece of this teacher’s heart will always be with the students of Providence, RI, where I was a substitute teacher for a year after graduating college. I got to spend time in nearly every secondary school in the city: a fascinating vantage point from which to see urban education.)

 

[top image is a screenshot from the above video]

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Ariel Sacks

Ariel Sacks began her 13-year teaching career in New York City public schools after earning her master’s degree at Bank Street College and has taught and coached in grades 7-9. She is the author of Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2014) and writes a teaching column for Education Week Teacher.

Ariel’s work as a teacher leader with the Center for Teaching Quality involved her in co-authoring Teaching 2030: What We Must Do For Our Public Schools – Now and in the Future. She was also featured in the CTQ book Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead Without Leaving.

She is currently working on a book about the role of creative writing in equitable, 21st century schools, and she speaks and leads workshops on the whole novels approach.

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