The “More Than a Score” Anthem: The new song that explains the book and the movement against high-stakes testing!
Caselli Jordan and Sterling Duns, of the group City Love that just released the song, “More Than a Score.”
A few weeks ago, I spoke in New York City at the Progressive Educator Network’s national conference. There I joined a wonderful panel that highlighted resistance to standardized testing.
After the panel I got off of the stage and an educator approached me and introduced himself as Caselli Jordan, a kindergarten teacher and musician from Philadelphia. When I saw the look of excitement in his eyes I knew the middle seat, red-eye flight, from Seattle to New York City was worth the trip. Caselli told me that immediately after my presentation, a song jumped into his head and he had to run out to the hallway to write it down. He hummed a little of the hook and I smiled. I was hyped to hear my words had helped inspire a song. He said he was going to work on it more. I told him I would love to hear it. Then other educators and parents came around to further discuss building the authentic assessment movement and our conversation was cut short.
As I was leaving the conference, I remember thinking what a good idea it would be to have an anthem for our movement against high-stakes testing–but I wasn’t sure if I would really ever hear from Caselli again. Then a few days ago, he and his bandmate Sterling Duns, who make up the group City Love, sent me a link to their new single “More Than a Score.” In the e-mail Caselli wrote,
I wanted to get in touch with you because in the weeks after the PEN conference in Brooklyn my bandmate Sterling Duns and I came up with a song about standardized testing. I actually started hearing the chorus while you were speaking in the panel and had to get up to leave and go record it And after I told Sterling your powerful hypothermia analogy, he put that in his verse. Thanks for all the inspiration and we hope the song can be useful to you.
This song is a wonderful gift to me as it explains many of the key themes in the book I edited, More Than a Score: The new uprising against high-stakes testing—including that we must opt out of standardized testing that has become a billion dollar industry, is destroying everything that is good in educating, and has contributed to the school-to-prison-pipeline. And if my first grade son’s reaction to the song is any indication, it’s an instant smash hit that will rouse the youth to action! He has the song on repeat. And that’s high praise because he has been very active in the movement that helped Seattle win more recess for students, so his favorite line in the single is, “Maybe instead of tests we could have a little recess? (I love recess!).”Share this opt out movement anthem far and wide. Let’s bring down the testocracy with a chart topping song that helps people raise their voices to bring back art class and cancel the tests!
By City LoveThis is a song inspired by, and in solidarity with the opt out movements throughout the country. It is inspired by the words of Seattle Map testing boycott organizer Jesse Hagopian at the Progressive Education Network Conference in October of 2015.The “More Than a Score” Anthem: The new song that explains the book and the movement against high-stakes testing! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:
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Lyrics:
Politicians, corporations, Gates foundation love that testing. But they don’t want us