2000-2018 My journey from
academia to radical education activist.
Dedicated to, and inspired by Frederick Douglas 1857 “West India Emancipation”
speech at Canandaigua, New York, “If
there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
In 2000, I completed my Ph.D. in Language, Reading and
Culture at the University of Arizona. My dissertation committee included
research giants in literacy and language policy, Yetta Goodman, Ken Goodman and
Kathy Short. Dorothy Menosky, original Miscue Researcher (and my master’s
degree advisor). Dana Fox, a leading voice in literacy education. Finally, Richard Ruiz the seminal voice in
language policy. My dissertation called for using culture as the invitation to
literacy on the Tohono O’odham Reservation, in Pima County, Tucson. It demonstrated the power of culturally relevant
curriculum practices to increase high school graduation rates for Native
American students. I was empowered with
the pedagogic knowledge, and truth to transform a curriculum that was deeply
rooted in nearly 200 years of inequity.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be
a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a
struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never
will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found
out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them,
and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or
with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom
they oppress. (F. Douglas, 1857)
My
Struggle 2000-2009
My beliefs were naïve, that truth alone could bring equity and justice to our
public schools. I knew this struggle was a moral one. How could the fight
against inequity in our public schools be anything else? I would spend the next
9 years writing articles reviewing the research, presenting success stories at
state, national and international education conferences. I became an advocate
for holistic education, and culturally relevant curriculums. I set out to find teacher
advocates with similar pedagogical understandings. I found many successes. Educators were making a difference in poor
communities using culturally relevant and holistic curriculums. I shared their
stories with mine. Sadly, I discovered
truth alone would not bring equity and relevance to our public schools. For nine
years, I didn’t realize that just like Frederick Douglas this struggle was both
moral and physical.
The evidence for the most
massive education reform failure in
American Public Education
History
I realized back in 2000 that America’s growing
obsession with rigorous standards and new testing was nothing more than yet
another form of trickle-down economics, a new myth of progress. It is no coincidence
the driving force behind this love of testing came out of “A
Nation At Risk.” These policy reforms
demanded high-stakes testing and competition become the focus of education
reform in our public schools. Like
many academics, I used Berliners Manufactured
Crisis and policy papers from National Education Policy Center’s research
to point out consistent failures of testing, masking as education reform.
Research clearly demonstrates high-stakes testing reforms do not lead to better
test scores. They lead to more children being
identified as special education, along with increasing numbers of behavior
problems at school. NCLB’s trickle-down economics, I knew back then, would
eventually leave our public-school system with greater inequity and immense
debt. The last straw for me was George Bush’s
selection of Secretary Page, and their push for No Child Left Behind
legislation. This legislation cemented high-stakes testing and charter schools as
the only road to equity for black, brown, poor and special education children
in our nation’s public schools. One trillion dollars was spent, not on
providing funding and equity for poor schools, but for new standards and
testing. (America’s love affair with testing actually began way back in 1892
with the National Education Association Committee of Ten. A national call for
new more rigorous standards and common assessments). https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030593580#page/n260/mode/1up. NCLB,
RTTT, and ESSA are not innovative and creative education reforms. They are a continuation
of 126 years of education reform failures. The Committee of Ten worked to
narrow down the curriculum to better connect high school and college education
as the beginning of culturally and racially irrelevant education. A basic
knowledge of American Public Education History informs us that testing and
standards have never succeeded in bringing equity and justice to our public
schools. These reforms are big sink holes, whatever is built upon them will
eventually collapse. Finally, we find ourselves
even further from any sense of a just and equal public education.
You
cannot go against the tide without risk.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It
never did and it never will. ~ Frederick Douglas
Back in2002, before it ever became law, I was speaking out against No Child
Left Behind in Connecticut. In 2003, I chaired
a conference at Central Connecticut State University entitled “Children
Are More Than Test Scores”. This conference put my tenure at risk. Unbeknownst to me a Republican Congressional
member went to the president of our university to complain about the conference
and the notion that NCLB would fail children. Years later, V.P. Dr. Elene Demos would tell
me “I saved your ass back then”. In 2003
my position as a faculty member became secure but my work in professional
development halted. Think about it, who hires the professor who calls
high-stakes testing a sham to help improve their schools test scores? 2003 was
my Douglas moment, this struggle is both moral and physical.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those whom they oppress. ~ F. Douglas
My struggle continues
I continued speaking up and presenting resistance stories at
conferences, and in 2008 came the single biggest proof of the failure of NCLB. The
Bush Administration released the data on NCLB's six year, six-billion-dollar
premier education reform effort with their "Reading First Schools." This
was the most rigorous research study of any education reform policy in American
Public Education history. It provided overwhelming evidence, six years of
massive failure. Reading First Schools all demonstrated loss of comprehension.
The only group to show growth in comprehension was the "Control
Group" (the group in the experiment that did not receive the treatment
used as a benchmark to measure the growth of treatment). The results of the Reading Research Study
were so bad we all expected someone to be fired, someone to take the fall. Our
nation’s leaders, policy makers, and legislators carried on ~ business
as usual.
When Barack Obama took office, Arne Duncan Secretary of Education, already had
the failing data. We expected change, but S Duncan argued the focus on early
literacy was wrong. He argued for the need of new standards, new tests, the
need to shift for academic literacy reform in upper grades. In 2009 and 2010
two more impact studies were published, both showed the same failing data. All
their recommended reforms demonstrated losses. Once again, the control groups
out performed. Duncan not only continued the same failed policies. He put the
idea of forcing poor schools to compete against each other for limited
resources on the front burner. School choice would become his mantra. In 2017
our public schools have become more segregated and more inequitable. Choice
without equity is an immoral choice.
On December
29, 2009, I posted on my Facebook Wall the following
Martin Buber Austrian-born Jewish philosopher who advocates
philosophy of dialogue said: “The real struggle is not
between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and
propaganda.” In 2009, I found myself increasingly looking beyond the
rhetoric of public media’s presentation on issues in education. Welcome beautiful 2010
the year we start to look beyond the propaganda.
I
came to understand that much of what is viewed as education reform in America
is Racist, sexist, anti-immigrant Propaganda. Frederick Douglas said “Who would
be free, themselves must strike the blow.” Someone had to strike a physical blow for
equity and justice in our public schools. David Berliner, Diane Ravitch, and a
host of others were already striking powerful intellectual blows by time Duncan
announced his Race To The Top Policy.
What could I do? I am no man of power. I hold no great influence with the
wealthy, the powerful, and the connected. I do not dine with CEOs, Senators, Governors,
Commissioners, or Presidents.
I began to re-read my favorites, Dr. Martin Luther King, Civil
Rights history. I read again about the great walks, The Cherokee Nation, The Trail
of Tears, Cesar Chavez’s 1966 walk from Delano to Sacramento. I reread Exodus,
and how the Hebrew People walked into the desert with Moses. I started to understand
the idea of walking as a radical action.
The Cherokee had walked 1000 miles before the Trail of Tears ended. The Navajo
people walked 300 miles. Dr. King walked 51 miles from Selma to
Montgomery. Some 75 Latino and Filipino grape
workers walked 340 miles with Cesar Chavez. No, I couldn’t change the world, but I could
start walking for change tomorrow. Could it be that my walking feet might strike
the first physical blow of this struggle to save our public schools?
In 2010, I walked from Connecticut to Washington, DC to protest testing in our
public schools. I understood research and data did not matter to these education
reformers. They were not driven by evidence. Ten years of NCLB and RTTT education
reforms had nothing to do with improving education. Education Reform in America
harmed black, brown, poor and special education children. But these reforms
made billions of dollars for publishers of textbooks, tests, and on- line data
tracking systems. NCLB had turned our children into test scores. RTTT was about to place For Sale signs on the
public schools in our poorest communities. Silence and apathy are not acceptable. I came
to accept the struggle for equity and justice in our public schools as a
struggle for freedom. So, while my walking
began in 2010, it continues today. Walking is the inspiration for my writing,
my teaching, and my activism. Along the way I became an SOSer, (Save Our Schools March) a BAT, (Badass Teacher) a UOO, (United Opt Out) a Moral
Monday CT member, a Black Lives Matter member, and Journey 4 Justice supporter.
Walking inspires my teaching, my activism, and my unionism.
These
feet shall walk again
The struggle continues
In 2015, I walked again, that 400-mile trek from Connecticut to Washington DC
to protest the newest education reform propaganda ESSA. In returning to
Frederick Douglas 1857 “West Indian Emancipation” speech I take comfort in his
words:
“In the great struggle now
progressing for the freedom and elevation of our people, we should be found at
work with all our might, resolved that no man or set of men shall be more
abundant in labors, according to the measure of our ability, than ourselves.”
In America, there has to be equity and justice
in our public schools. Let me go the well of hope. Let me remember the dreamer who went to the
mountain top. Let his words help right
the broken threads of our nation’s tapestry of freedom, justice, love, and hope.
“The other
America,” “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights
are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” ~ Dr. King, 1968.
So, Dylan sang It's "A Hard Rain Gonna Fall"
Like in 2018, just like 1776, 1857, and 1968,
I gonna walk in that hard rain,
I
draw strength from the well of hope.
I
will do what people of hope have always done.
I will work
for justice inside and outside our public schools.
I
shall not tire or waiver, for I know who I am.
I am one man walking,
One man walking for justice.
Not, worried about those hard rians,
Not, worried about how many miles it takes to get there.
Inspired by walking giants.
I do not need to win today,
I know justice will prevail.
If, not today, then tomorrow…
When it arrives,
I’m going to hang up these walking shoes.
Until
then, I walk through their hard rains,
I a man in love this progress of our struggle.
Come join our radical rising.
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
M. L.
King, (1968). The Other America
F. Douglas, (1857). If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
NCEE 2008-4016.
Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report, (2008 April)
