Missouri Education Watchdog: From The Trenches

Missouri Education Watchdog: From The Trenches:

From The Trenches

by Anngie

Diane Ravitch and Anthony Cody teamed up and had a call to action for parents, teachers, administrators and anyone interested in education to write a letter to the President by October 17th. The letters were a way to push back on the “education reform” changes that are being pushed at the national level and in states across the nation. The letters were written, most of them gut wrenching accounts of what it is like in today's classrooms. By far the issue of greatest concern is standardized testing and its impact on schools, teachers and students.

Here is just one example from the trenches.

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to you today as one voice in a chorus of millions of educators, students, parents, and concerned citizens.  I ask that you take a moment to hear our stories.

Mr. President, I worked as a special education teacher at a small elementary school just two blocks from your Chicago home.  Perhaps you and your family have walked by it, Reavis Elementary at 50th and Drexel?  Did you ever wonder what happened inside that small, crumbling, yellow-brick schoolhouse which sits just outside your affluent Hyde Park neighborhood? 

I doubt you let your girls spend much time in the park in front of Reavis, what with the frequent drive-bys and