Education Reform Should Not Equal More Education Stupid

Collecting data, for the sake of collecting data. It is time-consuming, expensive, and useless if that data does not come with resources to address concerns and issues. Data without resources and equity is just stupid.

Can someone please tell our policymakers and legislators that chasing data without the serious questioning the failure of pushing high-stakes testing and standards without addressing inequity is not education reform, but education stupid.

Imagine if leadership started listening to children, teachers, and parents rather than calling up Think Tanks and CEOs?  Data without resources is the status quo of the same old old inequity dodges of the past.

Here is the link and quote from USA article on the decline of 4th and Eight Grade Scores from 2017 to 2019 article that demonstrates in my professional view a status quo of data ignorance, and policy stupid.
"Over the long term in reading, the lowest-performing students, those readers who struggle the most have made no progress from the first NAEP administration almost 30 years ago."
https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-10-30/across-the-board-scores-drop-in-math-and-reading-for-us-students

I have come to accept the chase for equity and justice for Black, Brown, Special Education, and Poor Children in our public schools has been elusive, but intentional. After 170 plus years of inequity in our public school system. SIMPLE TRUTH: Any policymaker, legislator, or researcher claiming we need more data is part of the problem not the solution. We don't need CEOs, Billionaires, or Think Tanks to give us the answers. Been there did that for 4 decades now. America's Black, Brown, Special Education and Poor Children need the same resources America's wealthy schools have. After 170 and counting years anything less is systemic racism 101.

If you are wondering why teachers across America are striking? My thinking is they have grown weary of more stupid,.
A change is gonna come,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner Moral Monday Connecticut Education Ambassador








If you want to listen to the song that inspired my morning walk its the cover of Sam Cookes " A Change is Gonna Come" by Brain Owens and Thomas Owens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEXhZ8PwM-Y

Before the activist there was the teacher

Most people know me as Dr. Jesse P. Turner CCSU Literacy Center Director or as Jesse The Walking Man Turner an education activist.
But, before these things, there was a teacher who loved his students with all his heart. Here is a link to my dissertation that tells the story that drives my work today. Here is your chance to look inside the mind of my learning and teaching journey at one of the most rewarding teaching times in my career. All roads in writing lead us to Donald Graves. He often reminded us sharing your writing is akin to getting naked in front of everyone....a teacher who asks others to write but does not write is like a fully dressed person in a nudist colony. So today I stand naked with my teaching story and images from the journey that made this teacher become an activist. It's a long read, but skip around, peek in here or there, or maybe read it all.
Standing naked inside my teaching mind,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Here is the link to the teacher before he became an education activist link 
https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/279997/azu_td_3002511_sip1_m.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&fbclid=IwAR1y4uuCKaSx0nNXHZbEI7cpjOBpm5PEBbRzP5tIf2f7r9q7Z4TSOlOCBCA 
Some images from my days in the desert and on the masas of Arizona with the best students any teacher could ever have. 

If you like to listen to the song that inspired my walk on the Avon Mountain this morning its Robbie Robertson's "Ghost Dance" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLM1H8JH9XA

Dear Mr. President, no one is above the law

Dear  Mr. President, you are not above the law.

President Teddy Roosevelt had this to say about the law: "No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it."
Today, President Trump is the speaker at the 2019 International Association of Chiefs of Police's annual conference in Chicago. I wonder what they think? Is the president above the law as Trump's lawyers have often claimed?
It is clear where Trump and his lawyers stand: "It remains our position that the President's actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself, and that he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired." ~ President Trump Legal Team in their 2018 letter to the NY Times to Robert Mueller.

This is what the Impeachment Process is all about in 2019. In President Teddy Roosevelt's it was clear at the turn of the 20th century that no one is above the law. In 2019 it comes down to is the president above the law?
Last week in court President Trump lawyers fighting the efforts to obtain his tax returns. One of his lawyers representing him in court argued that "he didn’t need to release them because he will be immune from any prosecution until he leaves office—even if he shot someone on New York City’s Fifth Avenue (echoing Trump’s 2016 comment that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support)." ~ Attorney for the President William Consovoy.
No matter how his supporters spin it, these impeachment proceedings are about if one man is above the law.
Respectfully,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you like to listen to the tune that inspired my walk this morning its The Honey Drippers "Impeach The President" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFZQtBJkMI