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Bronx 8th-Graders Boycott Practice Exam But Teacher May Get Ax
Students at IS 318 are protesting ‘meaningless’ tests.
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.
A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking “actions [that] caused a riot at the school.”
The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott.
This week, Lopez notified Avella in writing that he was to attend a meeting today for “your end of the year rating and my possible recommendation for the discontinuance of your probationary service.”
“They’re saying Mr. Avella made us do this,” said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. “They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we’re robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests.”
Two days after the boycott, the students say, the principal held a meeting with all the students to find out how their protest was organized.
Avella on Tuesday denied that he urged the students to boycott tests.
Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system’s increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.
“My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions,” Avella said. “I teach them critical thinking.”
“Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn’t have the right to protest against the test,” said Tia Rivera, 14. “Well, we did it.”
Lopez did not return calls for comment.
“This guy was far over the line in a lot of the ways he was running his classroom,” said Department of Education spokesman David Cantor. “He was pulled because he was inappropriate with the kids. He was giving them messages that were inappropriate.”
Several students defended Avella. They say he had made social studies an exciting subject for them.
“Now they’ve taken away the teacher we love only a few weeks before our real state exam for social studies,” Tatiana Nelson said. “How does that help us?”
SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com
Tags: Bronx Education, Bronx News, bronx students protest, David Cantor, Department of Education, Douglas Avella, Intermediate School 318, IS 318, Johnny Cruz, Principal Maria Lopez, Tia Rivera
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I understand the idea of teaching children and the young to stand up to what they believe, but this can only incite a "rend" for children at other schools. Then what? Just protest and children wont have to take a test?
I mean they should continued to be challenged and pushed to the best they can be. They are out future leaders and the ones to run the world someday!
Bravo you guys!
I am a teen in a Brooklyn middleschool where the same thing is done. Classes are over but practice tests are given daily. The practice tests are really rough drafts of the test for 3 years fom now. They are supposed to help us, but isn’t that the same dumb explanation they gave to the East German Women’s Swim team when they were pumped up with steroids before the olympics? We have been told that these tests will determine where our life goes from here and there are much too manny chickens here for us to risk it all like these kids have.
POWER TO US PEOPLE!!!!
LETS SHOW THOSE BIG WIGS WE MEAN BUSSINESS!!!
Advice:
don’t be intimidated by those teachers who will try to scare you into doing what they want. Teachers Can Smell Fear. Do Not Under Any Circumstances Fear Them. That Is What They Want. They will also try to undermine the aliances through which this is built. They will beg, borrow, steal, bribe, cheat and sabotage to get their way and see this infalible boycott fall. they will try to turn you against one another. Don’t let it appen. United you shall stand, Devided this is hopeless.
Of course they will try geting rid of the teacher, they want to scare the boycotters, they believe if they cut off the head the body will die, JUST LIKE WHAT THEY DID WHEN THEY SHOT MARTIM LUTHER KING. Well they are wrong, because they are decapitating one who is completely irrelevent to the situation at hand. He has simply opened the eyes of his students to the corruption around them. Is it a doctor's fault if after the fixing of a blind man's eyes the man is not happy with how messy his room is? No.You can fix your room kids, I believe in you.
There is a storm brewing on the horison,
a cloud of dark, omnious rage that has built up for generations
It blows over now
there is no stopping it
no standing in its way,
a riteous tsunami of change that shall flatten the coastal towns of corruption
a fire that will engulf the earth
an earthquake that shall shake the planet to its roots
THE TIME IS NOW!
YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE!!!!!
Fabgab I cant say I totally agree .. In the mist of the "standing together and uniting "we are teaching children to revolt; even if its a matter of principal and for your own good..
Teachers and school officials, though not perfect should be able to give students as many tests as necessary to help and prepare you all for your futures.
You cant protest at work when your manager gives you a task you don't like but says it will help you for a promotion he hopes to shift you to in a few years. Firstly would anyone protest about this? Would anyone want to considering the potential of the promotion? I'm sure no one would.
These tests are critical in preparation and protesting them should NOT be tolerated!