New York 8th-Graders Boycott Practice Exam But Teacher May Get Ax

New York 8th-Graders Boycott Practice Exam But Teacher May Get Ax
by Juan Gonzalez


Students at a South Bronx middle school have pulled off a stunning boycott against standardized testing.


More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday’s three-hour practice exam for next month’s statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

“We’ve had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year,” Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. “They don’t even count toward our grades. The school system’s just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams.”

According to the petition, they are sick and tired of the “constant, excessive and stressful testing” that causes them to “lose valuable instructional time with our teachers.”

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/22/9123/

On the other hand, Tatiana sounds like she's got places to go and things to do.

You go, girl.

you fall, it is nice to see kids push back a bit and be involved.

“This guy was far over the line in a lot of the ways he was running his classroom,” said Department of Education spokesman David Cantor. “He was pulled because he was inappropriate with the kids. He was giving them messages that were inappropriate.”

Like what, daring to think for themselves? The nerve...

I keep thinking of Pink Floyd: "All in all you're just another brick in the wall."

On edit: My oldest daughter is about sick to death of standardized testing, too. She told me she made pretty pictures with the darkened ovals. Hey, since there's no incentive in the form of grades, why not?

Two, three, many Intermediate School 318's....

From OPs article:


Oh, yes, loud clapping is a "riot"! Oh my. Better send in The Pinkertons /sarcasm.