A backlash against high-stakes standardized testing is sweeping through U.S. school districts as parents, teachers, and administrators protest that the exams are unfair, unreliable and unnecessarily punitive - and even some longtime advocates of testing call for changes.
The objections come even as federal and state authorities pour hundreds of millions of dollars into developing new tests, including some for children as young as 5.
In a growing number of states, scores on standardized tests weigh heavily in determining whether an 8-year-old advances to the next grade with her classmates; whether a teen can get his high school diploma; which teachers keep their jobs; how much those teachers are paid; and even which public schools are shut down or turned over to private management.
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What started as a one-student march now includes more than 10,000 parents, children and elderly, in a goal to jog around the Chilean presidential palace for 1,800 hours in a row — 75 days — to urge education reform.
The march first began on June 13 when a lone drama student started running the half-mile loop around the presidential palace in Santiago. Then his girlfriend joined the protest run.
Soon, dozens of Chileans were taking turns in the exercise that is part of a nationwide effort to gain substantial education reforms.
Chile has been occupied for months by student protests where youth are demanding free education for all.
For the marathon protest run, there is always at least one person walking the half-mile stretch amid the central and congested streets of downtown Santiago with their black, tattered flag demanding “Free Education Now.”
The 1,800-hour goal symbolizes the $1.8 billion each year that, according to students, would be required to fund education for the 300,000 most vulnerable students in the system.
Amidst the bleakness of this social landscape, squinting all the while in the glare of a culture that radiates ultraviolet consumerism and infrared celebrity. That daily, hourly, incessantly enforces the egregious, deceitful message that you are what you wear, what you drive, what you watch and what you watch it on, in livid, neon pixels. The only light in their lives comes from these luminous corporate messages. No wonder they have their fucking hoods up.
… These young people have no sense of community because they haven’t been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron’s mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there’s no such thing. >continue<
Chilean student protester vs. riot cop
Athens, Greece: A telecommunications relay van burns in Syntagma Square during protests against austerity measures, June 28, 2011.
