High-Stakes Testing is a Social Justice Issue

Seattle Education

And here is why.

5 Reasons Why High-Stakes Testing Is a Social Justice Issue

by Jon Greenberg and Gerardine Carroll

Few things please parents more than learning that their children are invigorated about and engaged in their education, perhaps deconstructing the representation of women through a media literacy unit or trying Columbus for possible crimes against humanity – activities that represent education at its best.

Unfortunately, however, too many students are coming home from school deflated, defeated, and disillusioned.

Why?

The high-stakes testing season is in full swing.

What are high-stakes tests?

Tests are considered high-stakes when they are tied to major consequences, such as graduation.

But this year’s season is anything but business as usual. Instead, we are experiencing the largest revolt against high-stakes testing ever, as historic numbers of families from New York to Seattle opt their children out, refusing to subject them to what is too…

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Kooyenga and Darling’s plan to kill the Milwaukee Public Schools

Killing Public Education

Educate All Students, Support Public Education

Jay Bullock 5/13/2015 Blog
It’s out there now, the Republican plan to start peeling off Milwaukee Public Schools and handing them over to private operators. And it’s awful.

Sponsored by suburban Republicans Rep. Dale Kooyega and Sen. Alberta Darling, it is full of bad ideas and presents a possible future for MPS that is bleaker than you can possibly imagine. It’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll start at the beginning.

In January, Kooyenga and Darling released a shiny booklet (pdf) about their plan, called “New Opportunities for Milwaukee.” The book opened with an outright lie, claiming in its opening paragraph that the “War on Poverty” launched by President Johnson in 1964 resulted in “little, if any, progress,” in their words.

A careful study by Columbia University released last year showed that government progams, even though they are constantly under attack by Kooyenga and Darling’s Republican colleagues, “are…

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