Last Wed., Jan. 21, around 200 parents, teachers and school activists attended a forum in Greenwich Village at P.S. 3 to protest what they slammed as the “test-obsessed” public school system.
Diane Ravitch, the former U.S. secretary of education, was the keynote speaker at the event, sponsored by the Parent Action Committee of P.S. 3.
Ravitch urged audience members to join the “Opt-Out” movement and refuse to allow their children to take the tests. If enough parents join the effort, she said, the powers that be will have to get the message.
After Ravitch’s speech, the crowd broke down into groups to work on alternatives to the testing system.
Yet, the same night as the P.S. 3 event, Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his State of the State address, said teacher evaluations should be based even more heavily on their students’ test scores.
