Right now there is a child in New York State in bed not being able to sleep because she is terrified of the upcoming 270 minutes of testing this week.
Right now somewhere in the United States executives from a testing company are popping the corks on the champagne as they celebrate the profits from the tests they have sold.
Right now a child in New York State has heard constantly from his parents that if he fails the test he will be held over.
Right now very rich people in New York State are celebrating that their children in private schools are not subject to the New York State standardized testing.
Right now in New York State a teacher is looking over all the bills that her family owes and is concerned that these tests might lead her to be terminated in two years.
Right now in New York State a child is attempting to get a good night sleep he hears daddy beating up mommy again.
Right now in New York State a governor is being lauded by his rich benefactors as being their stooge.
Right now in New York State that same teacher in with the bills is contemplating something unethical to save her job.
Right now in New York State a principal has a plan in effect to change the answers on the tests in his school to keep his job and prestige.
Right now in New York State Harold McGraw III has no shame.
Right now in New York State a child is home alone watching WWE as he prepares for the exam.
Right now in New York State a well known hedge fund manager is walking out of the rest room at the Walkill rest area on the southbound Thruway.
Right now in New York State a 5th grade child does not now that Albany is the capital of New York because she spent so much time being test prepped this year.
Right now in New York State Uncle Mike and Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott feel no shame.
Right now in New York State millions of kids have not learned anything this year for they have been in test prep since September.
Right now in New York State we need the parents to fight back, to come together, to have their voices heard that they will not accept this type of education anymore for their children.
Not sometime soon, not later on, not tomorrow, but RIGHT NOW!!!
6 comments:
Right now, in New York State, the Dodgers are 9-1.
Right now in New York State, we have the technology to find test cheaters, the cheaters almost forced into that game by the high stakes testing investment conglomerate. It isn't the advancement in test scores for a year that should be examined, but the regression to the mean in the years that follow. In fact that is probably a large factor in why middle schools appear to be failing at such a high rate. The high stakes testing crew has done nothing for test security and has actually cut the funds to catch test cheaters. That is quite intentional. The data is published, and maybe teachers will start looking at data available to them and expose the extensive cheating that is happening. That would put a crimp in the plans of Cuomo, Bloomberg and the owners of high stakes testing.
Right now there is a website where you can share your stories about how high stakes testing is effecting your world....and read the stories of parents who are taking a stand for their children and for public education.....http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/share-your-stories/
Right Now In New York State
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Right now hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, if not millions, all over the globe are paying the price of the never satisfied insatiable greed of the few at the top who pull the strings.
How many young men and women, who were only still children (like those about to take these phony, for profit tests), less than ten years ago, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep the profits of the war industry at record levels.
I fought the Mis-Education Monsters Mafia for 42 years in all the schools in which I taught.
It was always an uphill fight and the Evil Doers would never hesitate to use every sick and obscene tactic to discredit me as they have done to so many others like the courageous Ted Smith- a brave man and NYC Educator, with a Heart of Gold and morals to match.
Teach your Son well- Mr. South Bronx School. Teach him to see through all the smoke and mirrors and evil perpetrated by the "Evil Doers". Teach your Son to be as brave as you have been for years beyond counting.
Teach your precious Son to understand that all the so-called "testing" is just one more means by which the Evil Doers who control Education in America, line their pockets at the expense of the working poor.
If these poor excuses for human beings, these veritable scum of humanity would create and foment endless wars to make cannon fodder of America's youngest citizens for the purpose of enriching themselves, it is not difficult to understand the purpose of all these tests your children are subjected to month after month, year after year.
Teach your Son well Mr. South Bronx School that his worth as a human being does not depend on the score he achieves on some test but rather upon the level of his personal sense of decency and how he treats his friends and fellow human beings.
Will we ever live in a just world ? I do not pretend to know.
But in spite of the Joel Klein's and the Theresa Europe's and the countless other stooges, lackeys, hatchet men and hatchet women who have served to enable 'evil incarnate' to reign over the lives of one million innocent New York City children and teachers, including your own precious Son, for years beyond counting, we must ever hold out the hope that as Victor Hugo so eloquently said:
"Truth, even though it be crushed into the dust will rise again".
History must be our guide and light the path forward. We have only lost this battle to give our children the Education they deserve, if we choose to abandon the battle to save them.
From where I now reside in Europe I still feel the same compassion for the children of New York City's working poor as I felt during all the many decades I stood before and taught my beloved students in the classrooms of New York's schools- in every Borough of the City.
Teach your Son and all your students well, Mr. South Bronx School, that in every generation there will always be a number of brave individuals, like yourself, commensurate with the number of unethical, immoral and depraved individuals pulling the strings at the top,, to fight for the welfare of our precious children.
God Bless you Mr. South Bronx School for your never failing courage to expose the truth of what the Education profiteers have attempted to do with our schools and with our children.
Read my review on Amazon Books of the seminal book on corruption in the world of Education,"White Chalk Crime". by Karen Horwitz.
This book is the place to start if one wishes to understand the Evil forces that have invaded and now permeate our Nation's school systems.
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David Pakter, M.A., M.F.A.
OPT OUT right now! Excellent piece.
THANK YOU!
The truth hurts, but it's better than the alternative.
Only parents are going to stop the steamroller of pseudo-reform and ever more extreme testing sweeping the country. Teachers must test or be fired, but families have the constitutional right not to be bullied by the state into participating in destructive educational practices, which the standardized tests have become on so many levels -- from their idiotic content (especially in the ELA) to the gross misuse of the data they generate. Our family will be demanding that teachers, not DOE bureaucrats, determine whether our children are promoted -- they will be staying home from the tests.
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