Students in Providence, Rhode Island, will hold a Zombie protest against high-stakes testing outside the Rhode Island Department of Education headquarters on Wednesday afternoon.
State Commissioner Deborah Gist may not be there, as she is participating in a conference at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute in DC on Tuesday with Michelle Rhee about “cage-busting leadership.”
The students are the ones in the cage.
They would like to bust out of the cage created by NCLB and Race to the Top. RI won RTTT funding to make the cage stronger.
They want the freedom to think and the freedom to learn, free of bubble testing and mandates from D.C. and the state.
If you are a parent or student or concerned citizen, support the students of Providence!
Help them bust out of the cage of high-stakes testing.
MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACT: Aaron Regunberg | Aaron@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | 847-809-6039 (cell)
“ZOMBIES” MARCH ON DEPT. OF EDUCATION TO PROTEST HIGH-STAKES TESTING
WHAT: Members of the Providence Student Union and other high school students dress as zombies and march from Burnside Park to RIDE, where they will dramatically demonstrate the deathly serious impact that the state’s new high-stakes testing graduation requirement may have on youth in Providence by staging a “die-in.”
DATE: Wednesday, February 13th
TIME / PLACE: 4:00 p.m. “zombie march” begins at Burnside Park in Providence
4:20 p.m. zombies demonstrate outside of RIDE (on the Westminster Street-side of the Shepard Building)
The event will have strong visuals and chants. Students will be available for interview.
###
The Providence Student Union is a youth-led student advocacy organization bringing high school students together to ensure youth have a real voice in decisions affecting their education. Learn more at www.providencestudentunion.org.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m hoping that that is where we’ll find Rhee and other celebrity educators and reformers in a few years, in a cage.
Arne Duncan , Boston mayor Menino, National head of PTA , and others are in Providence today. Press covering event at high school there which is among top winners of Race To The Top.
Watch for the press coverage.
Arne Duncan should be safe in the event of a zombie apocalypse, since they feed on brains.
And guts and a spine and oh yeah, balls, too. He’s out!
I wish I could somehow forward this to every student in my state, or better yet across the nation. Any ideas on how to spread the word without losing my job???
Awesome! We need more students and parents involved in this movement. They do not listen to educators, but they do pay attention to students and parents. March ON!
Maybe I’ve missed them, but I feel like I see surprisingly few posts on this blog about Rhode Island on this blog, which appears to be ground zero for the budget issues that plague so many states and cities.
Thanks for the link to the cage busting leadership. At the end, there is a brief bio of Michelle Rhee:
She has backed off her Baltimore Miracle.
She has also toned down her claims about DCPS. It used to be “significant” gains.
Now it is “gains”, gains which were in line with what was already going on.
Now, if only we can get the national media, like This Week with George, to stop the dissembling.
Gosh, Ed Harris, this is the first time I ever heard Eli Broad and Joel Klein and the Koch brothers and the Walton Foundation described as “grassroots.” As in the description of StudentsFirst as a “grassroots organization.”
[…] links to Diane Ravitch’s blog, where Ravitch […]