1,2,3 What Are We fighting for

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There was a good article in Education Week on testing, accountablitiy, and civil rights groups support for testing. It pointed out that historically testing actually harms minority children more than it helps. (see link)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/top_performers/2015/05/annual_accountability_testing_time_for_the_civil_rights_community_to_reconsider.html

Since we have been testing students for over a hundred years, and yearly for weeks at a time for the past 13 years shouldn't we see evidence for it's success? Testing is not equity! All data counts, but the data that counts most for teaching and learning is the very data Ed Reformers and some civil rights groups are ignoring. A couple of examples of the data that really matters:

Class size,

Wrap around services,

IEP Access to Special education and Literacy interventions services,

Access to daily PE, 

Access to daily Art,

Access to daily music,

And of course school libraries and librarians,
If we 
want to hold politicians accountable? 

Let us start by equalizing the playing field with the above.
There is the data that matters, and there is the data that really matters. For 13 years our policy makers have been focused on the data that doesn't matter. 

Walking to DC, 

Jesse

10 days out from my walk. 17 connecting the dot Walking Man events from CT to DC. It time to start thinking chants people.
Hey it's time to think of some chants(-:
1,2,3 What are we fighting for,
Our children,
1,2,3 What are we fighting for,
Our local schools,
1,2,3 what are we fighting for,
Our teachers,
Our stories, our history,
1,2,3 What are we fighting for,
Our communities, our schools.
1,2,3 What are we fighting for,
ART,
Music,
PE,
Play,
Recess,
What Are We fighting for?
Hope, equity, and our democracy.
Come on people, you know what I'm listening to on my walk in the rain today...It's country Joe at Woodstock vintage 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyS66rAk3M

You never know who you'll meet on a good walk

Thomas Paine said" “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” I am standing next to Mark Naison here, a man whose religion is to do good. Especially for the ones a young Jewish poet named Emma Lazarus called to America in her poem found at the Statue of Liberty.
He talks the talk, and walks the talk of her words in the "The New Colossus"
I remember my third grade teacher Mrs Gitter reading Emma's poem on top of her desk holding an old kerosene lamp making every word come alive. Reading:
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,0
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Mrs Gitter did not read "The New Colossus", because it would be on the test. She read it, because it mattered to America. She read it, because it mattered to a bunch of third grade children who could see the Statue of Liberty everyday on their way to school. She read it, because it would shape a new generation of Americans. She read it, because she loved us, and we knew loved us.
Well America needs people whose religion is to do good, and I am looking forward to walking for my brother Mark Naison in the fellowship of doing good. Come walk with us for children on June 23rd in the Bronx....
Can't wait until I start walking to Bronx on my way to DC,
Jesse


If you are wonder what song inspired me on my walk today it's Martha Bass's 1972 Walk with me > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm4j48BsIb4 <

Testing failed America in the 20th, and it is failing America in the 21st century.

There was another age when America was obsessed with testing, an age where progressive Americans worried that our nation would not be able to compete economically in the future, an age where these very progressive people decided they should create tests that would determined who is a burden and who is not. The American Eugenics Movement sterilized over 60,000 women based on their intelligence testing. They became the model for the Nazis "Master Race".
It's wise to study our past, and to look at our policy makers present focused on testing in our schools. Testing failed Americans at the turn of the 20th century, and it is failing our children in the 21st century. History repeats itself, and it's time we learned from it.
Children are more than test scores,
Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner

PS, I am less than two week from beginning my walk from Connecticut To DC. At this point we have 4 radio shows following the walk, and asking for weekly updates, over 17 connecting the dots Walking Man events planned. I can't wait until I start walking, meeting, and hearing from students, parents and teachers along the way. I am a man on fire, a man on a mission, a mission inspired by a love of children, their teachers, and their public schools. I am one man walking in the name of love to DC,
Jesse
PS if you like to listen to what inspired my walk to day...it's Peter, Paul and Mary's "If I had a hammer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTvr79Oe5w8