Get on the bus America

Today I posted on my home page the above picture with the following comment and link to the Makana song "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPgQV0YgWI
Get on the bus people, the middle class is shrinking, our pensions are sinking, and for the first time in our history our children are going to be less well off than their parents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPgQV0YgWI
Occupy America,
Jesse

The silence and apathy in America as we accept closing public schools in our poorest and most needy communities, leaving our university students with massive loan debts, and the constant union bashing is deafening. How can we accept this premise that our children should expect less. Is the American dream dead?
I was blessed to have Mrs. Stansfield. She was Black, and our Honor's English teacher. She taught everyday like everything in the world depended on her teaching, and years later I realize how much it really did. God rest your beautiful soul Mrs Stansfield, thank you, thank you, and thank you. She prepared me for the silence and the apathy of the masses with Langston Hughes's Let America be America again. It's worth returning to the poem and her lesson.

Let America Be America Again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

We were young, urban, and of course responded as young people do...It's cool, and kind of like it is written for now Mrs. S, the hook was baited, and she had us on her line.
Ah, she never let us off easy, no we did not write a five paragraph essay, or any persuasive essay. We studied it, we dug into it, we compared and contrasted it to a dozen other poets, and we studied the historical context of slavery, immigration, poverty, racism, and the labor movement. I can't imagine any teacher taking the time to do that in this insane time of covering the Common Core. Although something deep in this soul tells me there are teachers still breaking the mold, and honoring our profession by doing just that. Thank you, thank you, thank you mold breakers! You know the crazy one we love!

Well back to the lesson. It went on well over a week, and we read numerous other poets from all around the world making universal connections. In the end we ended up with something like Langston's poem makes Americans, what most would rather be kept secret. That dark side of that elusive American dream. An America not so beautiful, not so promising, an America not discussed in the news. It is as relevant as that old gospel: "Let justice roll down as waters and rightness as an ever flowing stream!" And yes she brought her bible in, and yes she brought Dr. Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech in. She brought it all in, remember she taught like life itself depended on her teaching. We even read Marcus Garvey. I fell in love with Marcus Garvey in her class while she played Bob Marley's "Redemption song for us."  She taught us like we were her own children. We knew this from her actions in our classroom everyday.
Oh, I almost forgot I don't remember one single teacher being observed by any administrator in my entire schooling, or any newspaper believing printing our test scores worthy of print. Certainly no one evaluated Mrs Stansfield. Oh, and none of what she taught was on the curriculum. Why this beautiful Black Peal brought it all in, and I am the better for it. Her teaching core wasn't common, it was extraordinary.

Students are blessed not by the teachers who toe the line, but by the ones who break all lines. They certainly won't be blessed by those who toe the Common Core line
Hear's to you Mrs Stansfield with my deepest love and appreciation. It will be in your honor that I join the 50th Anniversary March on Poverty next week.
You are my hero,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4NS2zdrZc Here's to the crazy ones link

Resisting Mandates in Connecticut

2002 failing policy: NCLB
2008 failing policy RTTT,
2012 Common Core State Standards, and the test to measure our compliance.
Now Ed refromers it's three strikes and you are out.

Fighting that third strike

Tough luck getting passed the CC if you are a priority school district, (poor district). State funding often requires these districts to blindly follow all DOE initiatives. In reality state initiatives are really Federal mandates that since NCLB was implemented come without the real resources to implement them out.
After 12 years of NCLB/RTTT some school districts in Connecticut have began to question reform policies. Thus Connecticut has Special Masters to oversee them, (Windham and New London), and in Bridgeport people like Paul Vallas.
My opinion is their mission is to remove any administrators or teachers who question state initiatives.
At this point in urban districts more and more teachers don't believe any of their hype. This cuts across length of teaching experiences. Especially teachers with advanced degrees, they are required to know education research. Something people like Vallas, Duncan, and Rhee know little about. Research is important, because it helps us avoid doing the same stupid things over and over again.

One peice of research Ed Refomers missed

One of the most important literacy research studies in the history of American Education is:
"The First Grade Studies" (Guy Bond and Robert Dykstra, 1964-67). These comprehensive studies researched how young children begin to learn how to read. (27 different individual projects coordinated by7 27 different directors in which a cadre of researchers compared first-grade reading programs from 1964 to 1967. (A recap from (www.weber.edu)

They research 3 basic questions:

1. To what extent are various pupil, teacher, class, school, and community characteristics related to pupil achievement in first-grade reading and spelling?
Answer: Negligible. “To improve reading instruction, it is necessary to train better teachers of reading rather than to expect a panacea in the form of methods and materials”(p.416).

Too bad our NCLB policy makers did not pay attention to this research. They went on to spend billions of dollars on Reading First Schools that force prescribed literacy programs on schools. 6 years later the findings indicated third graders in these schools actually lost comprehension. Plus the only group to show any comprehension gains was the control group, (these are the groups that did what they already were doing). Now you why, the Reading First Schools experiment ended. Of course, no one was fired, no one was repremanded, no one was held accountable for the 6 billion dollars spent on this U.S. DOE reform experiment. These edunation reformers operate across the nation without repricussions, they are above accountability, and in the case of Paul Vallas even the law in Connecticut.

Getting back to the questions

2. Which of the many approaches to initial reading instruction produces superior reading and spelling achievement at the end of the first grade?
Answer: classrooms using an integrated approach, which combined systematic phonics with reading for meaning and writing, far surpassed those using mainstream basal programs. “No one approach is so distinctly better in all situations and respects than the others that it should be considered the one best method and the one to be used exclusively “ (p. 416).

Once again too bad our NCLB Policy did not review the literature before they wasted 6 billion dollars over 6 years on non-integrated basal programs. These education reformers are above the research, we are told they operate like CEO(s). Funny, I know of no sucessful private scetor ventures that operate with paying close attention to research. 

3. Is any program uniquely effective or ineffective for pupils with high or low readiness for reading?
Key finding the persistence of project differences in reading achievement, even after adjustments were made statistically for differences in pupil readiness for reading. Reading achievement is influenced by factors peculiar to school systems over and above differences in pre-reading capabilities of pupils. (1997, p. 415).

Now, what might two of those differences be? Poverty, and quality preschool experiences, you know two of the things Finland when after as it moved from the bottom to the top of international education rankings.

Secretary Rod Paige who opened up our National journey into NCLB said poverty doesn't matter, and was no early childhood advocate. With A trillion dollars they could have easily made Early-Childhood Education free and universal without raising one single tax dollar. Instead America’s public schools were handed new standards and testing. Something that has no historical data to indicate it has ever been effective anywhere in the world.

America's leading Ed Reformers have for over a decade done what no serious researcher would do. They cherry pick their studies, and over looked the "First Grade Studies" one the most respected research studies in education. They overlooked research studies on retention, correlations between high stakes assessments and drop out rates. They ruled out the ones that indicated a connection between heavy emphasis on high stakes assessments, and behavior problems and higher rates of special education identifications. It appears they overlooked anything that might question their objective of increased testing. 

A decade of massive failures later, they don't even cite any research, they enter in board untested experiments. This means they are turning more and more to people with little or no experience and knowledge of education research. Thus the former semi pro basketball player with no teaching experience, no school administrative experience is made U.S. Secretary of Education. Duncan's fellow reformers Paul Vallas, Michelle Rhee, and a host of others given the keys to the kingdom. 

WHY?

This leadership quickly realized that it does not take long for them to realize that even new teachers quickly lose faith in their reform policies. Thus, the reformers push for more TFA(s) in our public schools. TFA(s) perfect people to deliver DOE policies, because they won't stay around long enough to understand they are being used.

Coconspirators the Main Stream News Media

America's free press isn't so free these days, and they willingly supported every reform every step of the way. Why? Well, Judas betrayed Chirst with a kiss for 30 silver pieces. Our media these days owe it's soul to ALEC. Who do you think buys add time on our major news networks? You got it ALEC sponsors. If you are interested in more about ALEC: Dr. Morna McDermott has a nice utube video that connects ALEC to ed reform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvUMk1ro27E

WHY are Ed Reformers still force feeding these reforms on our schools : in my humble opinion MONEY! Our children, their teachers, and our public schools are for sale. 
I am fighting back,
I am rejecting their betrayal.
I am rejecting their "for sales' signs,
This is why I walked to DC,

This is why I marched with SOS,

This is why I am a BAT,

This is why I will join my SOSers brothers and sisters as they join the 50th MKL Anniversary March on August 24, 2013,

Still resisting and still marching,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

On my walk over the mountain this morning I listened to one of Momma favorites : the Staple Singers "I'll take you there" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3vgBzgYn4

If you need to know the way to DC...I'll take you there

It was never about improving public schools

Bruce Fuller (2009) said in Standardized Childhood, “This framing accents the importance of building a tidier system, one that incorporates the array of existing child care centers, then pushes to make their classrooms more uniform, with a socialization agenda "aligned" with the curricular content that first or second graders are expected to know. Like the common school movement, uniform indicators of quality, centralized regulation, more highly credentialed teachers are to ensure that instruction--rather than creating engaging activities for children to explore--will be delivered in more uniform ways. And the state signals to parents that this is now the appropriate way to raise one's three- or four-year-old. Modern child rearing is equated with systems building in the eyes of universal pre-kindergarten advocates--and parents hear this discourse through upbeat articles in daily newspapers, public service announcement, and from school authorities.”

Ed Reform 101. Alexey was only in middle school when his Mom removed him. Today he is a smart young man who last summer helped the hospice center by identifying and fixing tech equipment donations for their summer tag sale. He is one smart young man.  I should know, we worked with him in our Literacy Center at the university when he was an elementary student. Reading is an obstacle he climbed over, and made it his strength. He is a special needs child with an IEP, (Individual Education Plan). He is also a good reader, creative, and funny. In elementary school on Crazy Hair Day he dyed his hair orange, and got a Mohawk. He is one heck of a kid.
I met his Mom last week; she told me he is doing well, and getting ready to graduate from the private school he now attends.
Why did the public schools lose Alexey? What did this affluent suburban public school system do to Alexy to make his Mom remove him frm their schools?

In elementry he prospered; he had music, art, P.E. and reading. But then in middle school, they came for the music.  Alexey plays the French horn among other instruments. He loves music. One day his school decided to give their district writing prompt during the music class. This was not the  mandated state test, it was a practice test for the test.  Alexy has an IEP that indicates his legal right to specific modifications. The teacher dutifully gave Alexey the assessment. Rather than honor his IEP he was asked in front of his peers "Do you need help"?  He is a proud kid, a good kid, who loves music.  Alexy said "no, and he took his test during music.  Alexy sat through the testing, and handed in a blank paper.  Alexy's grade for music became a failing grade because of the same blank paper.  His Mom could not understand how this happened.  She could not understad why Alexy was failing music, and was later told it was because of the writing prompt assessment where he had received a ZERO.  

Remember this, no matter how they twist it, reshape it, stretch it, or deny it, this is not about Ed Reform improving our public schools. It’s about all the Alexeys’ out there who are being hurt and humiliated in our public schools. Trust me it was never about the data, it is about power, money, and control. The only question is, how many children have to suffer before we give them back their childhood?
Still Walking,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what my whispered prayers on my morning walk were today? I prayed for change, I prayed for strenght, I prayed for an America whose leaders understand that children are more than test scores. If you are wondering what I was listening to it was Old Crow Medicine Show's "I hear them all" http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=987owXK3iPI#! And oh yeah it's about the music, the art, and respecting childhood. 

We should be saluting great teachers not beating them down

From Mr. Chuck Olynyk, one a brillant history teacher who brings history to life writes:
"Good Morning, World! Our last hurrah as the Humanitas Arts School at Roosevelt Senior High begins. Next year will begin the apartheid of public education: AP classes on one side, double-blocking of English and Math and elimination of any real enrichment of the curriculum, but plenty oof multiple choice questions answered on computers about articles kids read once and forget. Between Roosevelt and Fremont Highs, I've taught for 19 years in the Humanitas Program, linking History, English and Art, and for a really awesome year at Edison Middle School with Andrea Mordoh and Dwayne Turner doing likewise. Guess I'll just have to have a final project which involves creativity instead of recall, innovation instead of repetition. Because, as my friend Jesse Turner has observed, children are more than test scores"

Something is rotten in an America that crushes our learning and teaching spirits for test scores. The saddest piece of these efforts to focus on testing is that none of it has improved our nation's test scores. Our 17-olds are scoring lower on NAEP assessment than they did two decades ago, (NAEP 2009). We are now moving into further declines. In other words the data points to NCLB/RTTT as the biggest education policy failure in our nation's history.

Who is Mr. Olynyk?
To know this kind of teacher is to love him. Every child dreams of one day having a teacher like him. To get Mr. OLynyk in High School at the most cynical age is sheer bliss. Everyday in High School is like a holiday when Mr. Olynyk is in the house. You walk around what did he do today...OMG...can't wait until class...
To fully understand what it means to bring history to life for inner city Los Angeles high school students. You need to see Mr. Chuck Olynk teaching his students. Chuck's classroom is like no other classroom. He lives, he breathes, he empties his soul into his teaching. He is a 19-year vetran who has blogged this attacked on public education since 2010. He is not walking away, he is not giving up, but he is documenting this tragedy happening to his students and fellow teachers. After all this is what historians do. Chuck's story is a living primary source. I don't have to tell you this, but Mr. Olynk is loved by his students. That love keeps him going, and his teaching story inspires me. It reminds me of why I have to fight the power.
I salute you Mr. Olynk,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
I can sleep at night peacefully, because Mr. Olynyk will not go quiet into that good night. 

If you are wondering what I am listening to on my walk today. It is Public Enemy "Fight The Power"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WHe5fxS3dA

A crime against humanity

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/top-story/stories/the-real-deal-4th-grader-asked-take-nys-test-hospital-bed-7933.shtml …
Where was the NY Times editorial board on this crime against this New York child hooked up to his IV waiting for surgery? 

What that you say they were writing about how the common core State Standards are the best thing since slice bread.  

Perhaps they were on a conference call to Secretary Duncan asking how can we help spread your lies?

Perhaps they saw no profit in the truth?

Perhaps they are concerned they might offend Pearson?

Perhaps they just don't see, understand, or care about New York's children being victimized by meaningless standards and testing?

Someday our children will grow up, and they will ask how could you stand by while our childhoods were being crushed.

When that day comes I plan to say I fought for you every step of way my child.

What's your plan come that day?

Sincerely, 

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Taking the fight local

Some readers may wonder where the walking man has been these days. I have been collaborating with others to grow the fight against those people who are bent on reducing public school learning to teaching to the test. Linda Hall, Jonathan Pelto, with Dianne deVries, and I worked on bulding a real Save Our Schools Connecticut Chapter. We formed alliances with Defending Public Education Cradle to College, with AUUP, Hartford AFT, and CT AFT, and with CCSU Student Government Assocation, and other local groups. As Chair of the Literacy Essentails Conference I worked with Connecticut After School Programs to bring Antonia Darder's turth to Connecticut. http://www.darder.org/ She shared her view that RTTT Ed Reforms are attempts at Language Assination for second langauge learners, and cultural killers. In between all of that I drove down to DC to support my Opt Out Brothers and sisters as they occuiped the United States Department of Education in April.
While I may stop blogging for a while, I never stop marching against those reformers who want to reduce public education to teaching to the test. Fighting those that want to reduce reading and writing to inpersonal repsonses to mandated texts is an every day event, on my walks, in my classroom, and every where else I go for me. Like Muhammad Ali  said "I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" against their insane vision of that "The Brave New World" committed to the production of perfect little worker bees. You know perfect little Bill Gates clones.
So readers I am still fighting wind mills, still feeling strong, and still strongly believing that good will beat evil in the end. Here is my lastest venture "Taking the Fight Local:
https://www.facebook.com/events/159038687593865/
Defending Public Education Cradle to college: A free one-day conference addressing issues that cut across all levels of public education, including fighting back against assessment and addressing inequities in public education. We have great speakers lined up, including Jonathan Pelto, Roberto Cotto, and Ceresta Smith.
Spread the word Connecticut has joined the battle to save our public schools.

Why, why, oh why fight this battle.....
Why I am going to Defending Public Education: Cradle to College this Sunday?
Ever since NCLB started testing children every year from grades 3-8, elementary schools have become houses of detention where teachers are force to teach to the test, and children suffer.
Teaching should be more than testing,
Childhood is more than filling in their bubble sheets.
Child hood is a gift,
A time of wonder,
A time for play,
A time for reading anything your heart feels like reading,
Imagining new worlds,
Journeying through old ones,
A time for art,
For music,
For dancing,
For running and jumping,
A place where teachers open imaginations, not imprisoning them into objective little Common Core Close Reading boxes,
Where science, history, literature are not experiments in mind control, but in celebrating the liberation of young minds,
Where our seeds of democracy are nurtured not ignored,
A place where friendships are grown,
A place where failure is a mere side step on the jounrney to smart,
Where you fall often, but get up time and time again with the help of teachers, families, and friends,
Where Laughter sings,
Where giants and dragons live,
Where school buses take you to museums, historic places, and on safaris,
Child hood should not be a prisoning of the mind,
Schools should not have armed guards at their doors,
Police officers should not patrol our school halls,
Testing should be meaningful for personal learning,
Testing should not be a sorting, a weighing, and measuring of young minds for corporate futures,
I am going to the Defending Public Education: Cradle to College conference on Sunday, because childhood is a gift not a race,
Education should be a never-ending journey that does not end in bankruptcy for our children,
Most of all I am going because I care enough not to become apathetic and silent while our policy makers and politicians crush young minds,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what the Walking is listening to on his walks lately:

"Preacher man, don't tell me, 

Heaven is under the earth. 

I know you don't know 

What life is really worth. 

It's not all that glitters is gold; 

'Alf the story has never been told: 

So now you see the light, eh! 

Stand up for your rights. come on! 

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights! 

Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight! 

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights! 

Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight! "  

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7hElX3VR2z8Ab_NXNyoA?p=bob%20marley%20stand%20up%20utube&fr2=sb-top&fr=moz35

Dear Mr. President, Friendship does not trump Racist Policy

Will someone please tell the President that the revolution will not be televised on CNN, or MTV. Tell him instead it's a rising chorus of discontent; reaching from sea to shinning sea.  And  this week it was in Washington DC where 220 African American Civil Rights Leaders called Obama's education agenda "Racist"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/school-closures-civil-rights-arne-duncan_n_2577003.html

Now you can talk about your Rock of Ages
Talk about Gideon
Talk about David and Goliath
But Mr. President be warned
An army of Davids' are coming.
They are marching with Save Our Schools
They are standing with Parents Across America
They are on Facebook with Testing Is Not Teaching
They are parents, students, and teachers (PCAPS ) rocking that boat of unjust school closures in Philadelphia.
They are that noble coalition of concerned citizens in NYC known as NYCoRE
They are the 140 spreading the word online and in the streets  with Dr. Mark Naison
They are standing with Karen Lewis, and her glorious Chicago Teachers Union
They are writing on Teachers Letters to Obama
They are blogging with Valerie Strauss, Diane Ravitch, Deborah Meier, Anthony Cody, and Fred Klonsy
They are standing with the Garfield High School teachers in Seattle
They are students speaking up against high stakes testing in Providence, Rhode Island
They are Opting Out with United Opt Out the National Movement.
They are working to open your eyes to Secretary Duncan's lie at Dump Duncan on FaceBook
They are standing with C.O.R.E. that beautiful Caucus of Rank and file Educators in Chicago
They are parents from LAUSD calling for an end to this testing madness, 
They are informing a nation of the NCLB/RTTT lies at FairTest in Massachusetts
They are CELTers writing resolutions against this insanity that reduces children to test scores at NCTE.
They are our Early Childhood Heroes at DEY (Defending the early years) labeling this madness an abuse against children.
They are standing up for equity in Selma, Alabama at the Education Summit for the Selma Jubilee,
They are in Boston with Citizens for Public Schools,
They are our old and true Social Justice Warriors at Rethinking Schools
They Are UMass Students saying No to Pearson
They are opt outers,
They are SOSers,
They are students,
They are parents,
They are Dream Act Children,
They are Latin,
They are black,
They are red,
They are yellow,
They are white, and every color in between,
They are listening to Tim and Shaun on "At The Chalk Face"
They are our respected researchers like Stephen Krashen
They are mothers and sons fighting for justice like Nancy Carsolm-Paige and Matt Damon
They are the 8000 SOSers, who marched in 2010 with Bess, Rick, Sabrina, Bob, Michael, Morna, Ruth, Amy, Betsy, Tim, and Ceresta.
They are your brothers and sisters
They have been there since the beginning with Susan Ohanian.
They are 220 African American Civil Rights Leaders in DC calling Secretary Duncan's Race To The Top Policy"Racist"
They are too many to list.
We are the masses,
 crying out for justice in our public schools.
We are your people
Mr. President
suffering from an unjust education policy
one that reduces children and their teachers to data
and places for Sale signs on our local schools.

Mr. President the time has come to ask Secretary Duncan to resign.
Friendship and loyalty must not trump racist policy.

Let me hearken you back to another messager whose birthday our nation recently celebrated,  Dr.  Martin Luther King fought a war on poverty.  We are still fighting that war. We reject President Ronald Reagan's perspective "The War on Poverty is Over, and Poverty Won". We refuse to study that lie. This isn't class warfare.  This is the most righteous struggle any human being can be engaged in.
This is God's work, this is Social Justice, this is Walking in the Light of Christ.
Still Marching with Martin,
Jesse, The Walking Man, Turner

If you want to know what song the Walking Man is listeing today it is "We Shall Over Come"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j__MFhKvGQA



 

Who needs to talk race, poverty, and inequity in America's Public Schools? Especially when we have those very objective and so safe Common Core State Standards.

http://educationnext.org/all-a-twitter-about-education/ Mike Petrilli linked article (All A-Twitter about Education).  I'm a bit confused by it's claim tweeters are sort of talking past each other. Mike is one of those George Bush's DOE devotees who woke up in 2007, and found NCLB wasn't working. He found some new religion in the Common Core, a new job as Executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He is twitter user, blogger, and policy advocate. 

  

My response to Mike Petrilli's obsession for counting twitters: 

I find it amusing Mike Petrilli is keeping tally of tweets. Counting tweets does not discount America's children are more than test scores. Or that desegregation is still the prize not new testing, or new standards. A prize America loves to ignore. Who wants to talk race when we can talk testing data? A decade later, and a nearly trillion dollars spent on NCLB/RTTT policies that still leave millions of children behind. America’s urban schools are becoming choice zones that leave our public schools more segregated than ever.
As Mike’s is counting twitters America’s urban schools are fast becoming the new projects.
In between some of those reform tweets is a view that testing and standards are the cure for poverty. A cure that seems only to speed up that good old public school to prison pipeline.
RTTT policy is a "testing cure” that every billionaire, and for profit school ventures love to love. That objectivity sounds old school, so very objective, and so very 20-century eugenics to me, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-614728.html .
An NCLB/RTTT policy by their own data leaves nearly 80% of America schools as failing. Of course states can always get a Secretary Arne Duncan’s bondage waiver, and pick up tens of millions as they pass that RTTT Go sign.
You remember the policy Mike Petrilli advocated while working at the President Bush’s DOE until he left.  The policy he discovered was not working after he left his NCLB lapel pin behind in 2007. Praise the lord he found his new religion in the Common Core. The one he ran to support when Indiana wanted out. Imagine if the Common Core turns out to just another policy lapel pin cure for poverty rooted in that old carrots and sticks approach similar to NCLB?

Well in my humble opinion neither testing nor national standards will save our public schools. You can bet they won't end racial isolation, economic isolation, or poverty. Come to think of if thse NCLB scores are all good then there wouldn't be a need to segregate at all. It would be a kind of second coming for those old separate, but equal dreamers.
I rather imagine a real federal commitment to desegregating America's public schools?
Skip the RTTT wavers,

Skip the Common Core State Standards, and Certainly skip the high stakes testing.
I rather America start holding it’s states accountable for failing to desegregate their public schools.
Rather than U.S. DOE counting RTTT bondage wavers Secretary Duncan might reward communities for actual moves to desegregate their public schools. This doesn’t require new testing or standards. We already have a built in moral standard with Brown V. Board of Education. All it requires is counting already available segregation data, and connecting Federal funding to real increases in those desegregation numbers. 
As Mike count tweets I’ll be trying hard to survive the policy mandates that reduce children and teachers to test scores.
In between teaching, learning, surviving mandates I'll take a few weekend trips. Going to the Selma Jubilee Educational Summit again this February, (http://www.selmajubilee.com/)occupying the DOE 2.0 in April, (http://unitedoptout.com/occupy-the-dept-of-ed-in-d-c-april-4-7/) and once again walking to DC this summer.

Desegregation can’t be tweeted away, and is not some Race To The Top. It is still the law of the land that states are out of compliance with.  Brown v. Broad of Education threw out Plessy v. Ferguson. Perhaps Mr. Petrilli this is the line in the sand for any relevant school reform discussion some 117 years later. This is still about the the savage inequities that refuses to acknowledge desegregation is the prize. I reject the notion that proficiency measures are the path to desegregate America’s public schools.
Still Marching, 


Jesse The Walking Man Turner
Guess what the walking man is listening today? How about a little Undisputed Truth Smiling Faces (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKyXA_nMVQ)

Since when did 2nd graders reading about rape make sense?

Should 8-Year-Olds Be Reading Stories That Glorify Rape?

After her 2nd grader was assigned a story that glorifies rape and extols whiteness as the standard for beauty, a mother tackles bias in elementary school literature head on. http://www.alternet.org/education/why-are-8-year-olds-reading-stories-glorify-rape 

People you can't make this s__t up.  Childhood innocence will always come second to standards driven by proficiency levels. We have 3rd graders reading Tolstoy in New York as part of the Common Core. We are even being told our kindergartners should start preparing for college.

Who are these people? My thinking is they are a bunch of fools. The same fools who are putting for sale signs on our schools, reducing children to data, and bashing teachers. The very people who do not send their own children to public schools. Madness, madness , madness, and more madness. 

My daughter is 23, and she is home for the holidays from graduate school. I get going to college people. She turned out to be a beautiful person, but I so dearly miss reading Roald Dahl's Danny Champion of the world and E. B. White's Charlotte's Web. What parent looking at their children in their adulthood thinks why didn't I rush them quicker through Childhood? Childhood is such a waste of time. If only they could be born adults.
What about the standards of holding a child's hand, walking, climbing trees, exploring, and imagining a world of friendly dragons.
Who are these Ed Deformers rushing childhood?
... Children Are More Than Test Scores,
I am walking to DC,
Jesse

If you want to know what the walking is listening to..it's Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FyjKQvWKw8

Spreading the News links from the amazing Bob Scheaffer

Happy New Year to the resistance, 

In 2007 almost no one criticized NCLB. In 2008 Race To The Top had few critics either, in 2009 there were no Anti NCLB groups on Facebook. In 2010 resistance to NCLB/RTTT was growing on Facebook. Still on my 2010 walk to DC I felt lonely and alone on most days. In 2011 8,000 people marched to DC with Save Our Schools. In 2012 Opt Out Occupied the DOE in DC, and Save Our Schools Held a School Reform Convention in DC. The point is the tide has turned, and resistance to NCLB/RTTT is growing. Opt Out is going back to DC April 4-7 for Occupy 2.0: The Fight For Our Public Schools, and Parents Across America and Save Our Schools are still marching. So start spreading the news people this is no longer a one horse town. See you in DC at Occupy 2.0 people.
I am walking to DC,
Jesse 

The new year kicks off with another excellent set of stories about the growing assessment reform movement and the many flaws of test-driven policies.

Sixth-grader Persuades WashPost Columnist to Support Testing Moratorium
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/exceptional-dc-student-educates-me/2013/01/06/b75ce0fa-5761-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_blog.html

Testing Scam Puts Public Schools at Risk
  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-school-testing-myword-010413-20130103,0,1595639.story

Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment Op Ed -- "School Testing System Badly Needs Fixing"
  http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/school-testing-system-badly-needs-fixing/nTjh8/

"The True Cost of High-Stakes Testing" -- Powerpoint presentation by Orlando School Board Member
  http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2013/01/new-anti-testing-presentation-from-rick-roach.html

What Research Really Says About Florida's Test-Based "Reforms"
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/09/what-research-says-about-floridas-ed-reform-model/

Gates Teacher Evaluation Scheme "Trapped in a World of Circular Reasoing"
  http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/gates-still-doesnt-get-it-trapped-in-a-world-of-circular-reasoning-flawed-frameworks/

To Test or Not To Test -- National Opt-Out Day Debate
  http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2013/01/two_viewpoints_should_students.html

Race to the Trough and State Regs Force Change in Model Teacher Evaluations Systems
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/07/moco-schools-chief-on-new-teacherprincipal-evaluation-systems/

Test-Maker Ethical Problems in Dealing With Chicago Public Schools
  http://pureparents.org/?p=20184

Rhee-First Grades States on Education Ideology Not Results
  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/07/1177063/-Rhee-s-StudentsFirst-grades-education-on-ideology-not-results

High-Stakes Testing Won't Fix What's Wrong with Our Educational System
  http://www.cvfarmerandminer.com/content/high-stakes-testing-and-charters-won%E2%80%99t-fix-what%E2%80%99s-wrong-our-educational-system

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
ph-  (239) 395-6773  fax-  (239) 395-6779
cell- (239) 699-0468 
web- http://www.fairtest.org 

No one is above the law, but Congress

I thought this one might interesting to those of us who are paying back student loans. The children of Congressional members do not have to pay back their students loans. Government by the people for congressional privilege. Congress we make the laws for other people to follow! 
As longs as the people who make the rules don't have to follow them we are a people bondage of inequity. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote in A letter from Birmingham Jail That " Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" (1963). How many many humiliations must we endure. 
I am walking to DC,
Jesse



You say you want a revolution by the Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrkwgTBrW78
We sure could use one now people!

I am walking to DC

Anthony Cody wrote another excellent piece in Education week: "Education Reform Dichotomy: Big Choices Ahead", (http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/01/the_education_reform_dichotomy.html). Anthony ask people to respond.
My response is let us act, let us continue to fight back, let us push Civil Disobedience to the max, children are suffering. This is the time to occupy, march, sit in, disrupt, and yes for the Walking Man to Walk to DC again. Silence and apathy are not acceptable. Since NCLB's birth over a decade ago we have see our nation's schools becomes more segregated, less democratic, spend hundreds of billions on failed reforms, false choice, demoralized both students and teachers via more and more meaningless testing.
My thinking is NLCB created one lost generation, and RTTT is losing another.
I don't see side effects Anthony, but Collateral damage that David Berliner wrote about in 2007 "Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools" Real lives have been destroyed by No excuse policy pushers.
Dialogue yes, but as Fredrick Douglas said: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Let us admit the No Excuses group is not backing down, conceding nothing, and seeking more top down control. They don't see children they see proficiency scores, profits, and power. They don't dialogue, they don't listen, and they care about children. Dialogue to them is we talk you listen not us.
I am still walking, still marching, and I'll be occupying Secretary Status Duncan's DOE in DC in April at Occupy the DOE 2.0 : The Battle For Our Public Schools. After that I plan my next next walk to DC this summer.
Sincerely
Jesse The Walking Man Turner
PS Read Anthony Cody's Blog, reply, and consider following him. I have always found him to be honest, fair, accurate, and informative.

Still listen to that old marching song Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z1trynEHs