I hope you remember seeing Joshua Katz’s fabulous TED talk, where he lacerated the fake reformers who are assailing hard-working teachers, smothering children with standardized tests, and privatizing public education for fun and profit. Josh is a math teacher in Orange County, Florida.
Great news! Joshua Katz is running for school board in Orange County, Florida. That board is thinking of bringing in TFA. They need a real educator on the board.
The nonpartisan election is August 26.
This is his Facebook website.
Give as generously as you can. I will when he has a donations page not on Facebook.
I have urged him on Twitter to start a website for donations that is not on Facebook, since I do not go on FB.
I wrote this about his TED talk:
“He shows how our present “toxic culture of education” is hurting kids, stigmatizing them as early as third grade by high-stakes standardized testing, while the vendors get rich.
“He connects the dots: the testing corporations get rich while our children suffer. He names names: Pearson, McGraw-Hill, ALEC, and more.
“The high-stakes tests demoralize many children, label them as worthless, demand “rigor,” while ignoring the children before us, their needs and their potential. As he says, we are judging a fish by whether he can climb a tree and labeling him a failure for his inability to do so. We ignore the development of non-cognitive skills, of character and integrity, as we emphasize test scores over all else. By trying to stuff all children into the same standardized mold, we are hurting them, hurting our society, and benefiting only the for-profit corporations that have become what he calls “the super-villains” of education.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You can contribute (non-Facebook) at: http://www.joshuakatzforschoolboard.com/
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Standardized testing needs to be over!!! Stop demanding scores from our children. If they can’t learn the way we teach (to the test) then lets start teaching the way they learn! Let’s put more emphasis on creativity and imagination. Let’s offer more hands on learning experiences and learn from where they are and where we want them at years end. I agree that we need tostop these villains once and for all. Each year I struggle as a teacher while I watch my students and as a mother as I watch my 3 children get so concerned over these high stakes tests. It’s amazing that we put them through torture as children and then as adults we expect them to have great confidence and high goals. My answer for my own children was easy. I would always tell them to do their best, in everything not just tests, and I never show them the scores because they are so unimportant in today’s world! There’s no reason why children who meet advanced placement on their report card in curriculum areas should even be made to fell less because of a standardized test that says they are lower average in areas. In fact, maybe we should start working on morale as a country! Good luck Joshua Katz! I’m cheering you on!
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