The Providence Student Union is a creative, energetic group. They are also very smart, and they figured out that it was wrong to use a standardized test as a graduation requirement.
PSU has created a series of fabulous demonstrations, and this guinea pig protest at the Rhode Island statehouse was one of their best.
These kids have convinced me that this younger generation is far smarter and wiser than previous generations. We should stop pushing them around and encourage their creativity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The fact is they (kids) will find a way to be creative no matter what adults sequester them with. So better to invest and participate in that creativity so is not turned on or aimed at the generation ahead of them.
Besides, life is more fun and interesting that way. Sharing life’s joys and discoveries across the generations should and can be a delight.
Woe to those who do not know this. I always thought most people did.
(I guess it’s one of those other people’s children things)
Without low test scores, there is no need for the entire edu-reform industry. I tell my students this.
I tell them the tests are a classic example of bullying and they should never doubt their abilities because of a test or a test score.
When I tell my students that none of the kids in Dallas’ expensive, elite, all-white private schools take the state tests (and never feel like failures as a result), my students react with shock.
It’s great to see students catching on and fighting back.
Sincere thanks for teaching your students real critical thinking and advocacy.
Aspen Country Day School:
A humane alternative to the ‘factory school’
The term “factory School” sounds eerily like what the elites continue to demand for the masses.
Paraphrasing the brochure from the The Aspen Country Day School:
The country day “movement” started in the last century at campuses on the outskirts of then-major industrial cities as “A humane alternative to the ‘factory school,’ where hordes of students were lumped together as anonymous and interchangeable.” The last a quote from Lessons From Privilege: the American prep school tradition
Yes, the prep school offered refuge to privileged youth, when:
“The flavor of the day was the so-called Gary School system. Named for ostensibly progressive “work-study-play” schools devised in the steel town of Gary, Ind., they were a faddish way to stuff throngs of students into cramped buildings…
Championing the program was the Rockefeller Foundation’s General Education Board, whose founding literature assured the public, “In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands.” Despite the plan’s connections with the Rockefeller Foundation and its provenance in a town built for factory labor, the Gary system delighted liberal elites, who held that schools should “meet the practical demands of industry.” Even John Dewey, who was issued the first New York Teachers’ Union card in 1916, sang its praises. With Mayor Mitchel’s efforts, schools throughout New York underwent Gary-ization.
Understandably, many New Yorkers fretted at the meddling of industrialist elites in schools. A New York Tribune op-ed echoed the general sentiment: “The entire system was designed to train the children of steel workers to be efficient cogs in the industrial machine rather than afford them a more liberal education.”
From: http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-revolution-will-not-be-standardized/
Now we are facing the nationwide implementation of the latest incarnation of the efficiency movement: The Common Core heralded in with themantras of “college and career readiness,” and “success in the global marketplace,” which is just another way of saying:
“efficient cogs in the industrial machine”
I clicked the link. Impressive!
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 11–12 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)
Seems to me these students met these core standards without any kind of testing whatsoever.
And a little child shall lead them.
Hmmm