Day 1

Today is my first blog ever. I am new to blogging, but not new to fighting for the rights of children, parents, and teachers. I have been fighting the battle for balanced assessment for many years now. It is not that I am against using standardized assessments, but what about other sources of data?  What about a student's GPA? What about what students have to say? What about what teachers and parents have to say?  We all know some learners do not do well on certain kinds of assessments. What happens to these students when we rely on single standardized assessments?

To rely on one single measure from an outside source as the main indicator of a child's or a school's success is narrow minded and misguided. It weakens parents, communities, and our democracy. 

The decision to walk began in November, (2009) at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Philadelphia. I was presenting NCLB resistance stories with Dr. Barbara Clark, Dr. Joss French, Dr. Lynda Valerie, Megan Zebra, and Dr. Kurt Love.

Barbara told people she walks in the Thanksgiving Road Race in Manchester Connecticut with her students every year handing out literature that questions NCLB.

Next thing we said lets walk to DC.

I post a letter to Anthony Cody’s Letters to Obama. That was 32 pounds ago. I said I was walking to DC, and I am a man of my word.

I will post the letter I wrote to President Obama that was included in Anthony’s Cody letters to the president.