Rally: Standardized tests must go
Educators, students, supporters from across the state urge reversal of new mandates
By Matthew Hamilton
Updated 9:52 pm, Saturday, June 8, 2013
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| Fifteen-year-old Brittany Morris, left, a student from Watertown and Pat DeStefanis, right, a teacher from Indian River join other students and educators during an education rally to press the fight for the future of public education at the Capitol on Saturday June 8, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) |
Albany
Two characters infamous among educators mingled with the thousands at the One Voice United rally for education reform at the Empire State Plaza Saturday.
No, they weren't State Education Commissioner John King and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, lambasted by some speakers and targets of signs calling for their ouster.
It was the hare and the pineapple.
The characters are from the nonsense story "The Hare and the Pineapple" by Daniel Pinkwater, which appeared on the state's 2012 Eighth Grade English Language Arts test. The questions about it were thrown out because they caused such confusion among students who took the test, leading the State Education Department to determine they were ambiguous.
On Saturday, Kevin Glynn and Anthony Griffin dressed as the characters to underscore the rally's main message: standardized testing must go.
"Our goal was to make sure that (the awareness the story created) isn't forgotten," said Glynn, who teaches third grade in the South Country school district in Brookhaven, Suffolk Count
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Rally-Standardized-tests-must-go-4588958.php#ixzz2Vk0sMrGK