I am reposting this because when I first posted it, the link didn’t work. It is a 3-minute video made by public school parents in Néw York City. My son Michael, the father of a second grader in a Brooklyn public school, is one of them. He is not in the video but he is very active in ParentVoicesNY.
Do you want to know what parents really think?
Do you want to know what students really think?
Don’t ask a group funded by billionaires.
Ask parents and students.
Watch this video, made by parents in New York City. If that doesn’t work, try here on YouTube.
It is addressed to Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio but it could just as well be addressed to every governor, state legislator, Congressman, and mayor in the nation.
The message from parents and children:
I am not a test score. I am so much more.
Educate me. Let me love learning without the threat of a test hanging over my head at every moment.
Please help this video go viral.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Posted it on FB
My new focus is that school needs to be “time well spent” for children. Test prep is not time well spent if that is the main focus.
Also, it is time for public school teachers to brag on their credentials. Studies in child development, when you are a teacher, is a selling point.
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Instead of measuring value added only, look at quality added in terms of credentials on working with children.
There are elements to elementary teaching that are more akin to nursing than to high academic activity. So quality means the teacher has studied child development.
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My daughter in Brooklyn sent this to me yesterday via Facebook where she posted it and she has a lot more friends than I do… I wrote a post on this yesterday that had a cautionary note: if diBlasio appoints a chancellor who wants to reject the testing machine he will have to cross swords Cuomo and Duncan both of who are heavily invested in the grade-level high stakes testing accountability model and neither seems inclined to cede ground… and if diBlasio wants to appoint and support a chancellor who wants to opt out of the Regents and the Race to the Top NYC could be in for interesting times and possibly less State and Federal aid. I hope diBlasio finds the Superman (or Superwoman) the parents desire, and I hope the threat of lost State or Federal funds are not the kryptonite that brings the new leader down.
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wow Diane. So powerful, it brought me to tears. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
David
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Shared! I just wish my current and former colleagues would rise up and help spread these messages. I often share links and video clips and I get one or two likes and a nice supportive comment from my Aunt Judy in Florida. I love Aunt Judy. She gets it!
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Really Powerful. My Chancellor will put children at the core and find a sense of common unity . He/She will put the joy of learning back into the equation!
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Continue from Betty above.,,,
We must put the joy back into learning and let the natural curiosity lead the way. Our children are unique. We must find the Unique Core to their learning.
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Please consider a new strategy, colleagues and dear parents! Attempts to get NYSED to change are absolutely useless. Let’s launch a statewide writing campaign to the notable “donors ” to the elite group of Regents Fellows. See the list in the Albany Times Union November 25 article by Jim Odato regarding this mysterious research arm of the Board of Regents whose reforms are driving this madness. CIRCUMVENTING NYSED and giving direct voice to the private foundations funding this madness may be a way to effect change. If every concerned teacher, parent, student, and school leader would agree to bombard Tisch’s financial resources, it MIGHT make a difference. We need to change course fast…
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