As a new school year begins, let me be the first to wish you parents, students, and teachers a year full of intellectual curiosity, problem solving, empowerment, and struggle to make education about more than the ability to eliminate wrong answer choices and shade the box corresponding to the single best answer choice.

As a history teacher I am excited for this year as we are poised to see the largest rebellion against standardized testing this nation has ever experienced.  With the new Common Core State Standards coming on-line in many school districts across the country, many of the current exams that are being used are not aligned to the standards being taught in the classroom–which will only serve to fuel an already growing resistance to high stakes standardized testing.

I am quoted in this piece that ran yesterday for National Public Radio (NPR) that should give you a sense of just how robust our movement for authentic assessment is becoming: 

“While his eighth-grade classmates took state standardized tests this spring, Tucker Richardson woke up late and played basketball in his Delaware Township driveway…”

Here’s to building a mass civil rights movement to defend public education! Boycott, Opt-Out, Walkout!

Sincerely,

Jesse Hagopian