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proud2BlibKansan

(96,793 posts)
Sun Apr 21, 2013, 08:12 PM Apr 2013

Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax

Students at a South Bronx middle school have pulled off a stunning boycott against standardized testing.

More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday's three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.
Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.
"We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year," Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. "They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."

According to the petition, they are sick and tired of the "constant, excessive and stressful testing" that causes them to "lose valuable instructional time with our teachers."

School administrators blamed the boycott on a 30-year-old probationary social studies teacher, Douglas Avella.
The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/bronx-8th-graders-boycott-practice-exam-teacher-ax-article-1.330981#ixzz2R97waebe

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Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax (Original Post) proud2BlibKansan Apr 2013 OP
Tatiana speaks the truth. nt narnian60 Apr 2013 #1
If the kids have figured out that public schooling is test-maker welfare... Orsino Apr 2013 #2
Uh-oh..... Canuckistanian Apr 2013 #3
You go eighth graders! Baitball Blogger Apr 2013 #4

Orsino

(37,428 posts)
2. If the kids have figured out that public schooling is test-maker welfare...
Sun Apr 21, 2013, 08:20 PM
Apr 2013

...pretty soon some of the adults are going to catch on.

Canuckistanian

(42,290 posts)
3. Uh-oh.....
Sun Apr 21, 2013, 08:28 PM
Apr 2013

"My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions," Avella said. "I teach them critical thinking."

He taught them critical thinking? Fire the bastard!

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