ONE HOT MORNING in May, Kiana H er­ out college applications. They were always Kiana says.

ays Kiana says. “The only place that I felt that

nandez came to class early. She stood still being used for testing. I had worth was Mr. Katz’s class. That’s the
outside the door, intensely scanning each Kiana had a 2.99 g pa and is heading to thing that kept me going every day.”
face in the morning rush o f shoulders, hats, Otterbein University in O hio this fall. She O n the news, Kiana saw pictures o f stu­
and backpacks. She felt anxious. For more says she did well in regular classroom as­ dents and parents carrying signs reading
than eight m onths she had been thinking signments and quizzes, but struggled with “O pt-O ut: Boycott Standardized Testing.”
about what she was about to do, but she the standardized tests the district and state H er high school d idn’t have activists like
didn’t want it to be a big scene. demanded. “O nce you throw out the word that. In the library, Kiana made flyers that
As her English teacher approached the ‘test,’ I freeze,” she tells me. “I get anxiety read: “Are you tired o f taking time consum­
door, she blocked him with her petite, slen­ knowing that the tests co u n t more than ing and pointless tests? Boycott Benchmark
der frame. Then, in a soft voice, she said, classwork or schoolwork. It’s a make or break Testing! W hen given the test, open the slip
“I’m sorry. I’m not going to take the test land o f thing.” and do N O T pick up your pencil. Refuse to
today.” The multiple-choice test that morn­ Junior year had been particularly hard. feed the system!” She passed them out to her
ing was one o f 15 that year alone, and she’d She’d failed the Florida reading test every classmates, but they were worried that opt­
found out it would be used primarily as part year since sixth grade and had been placed in ing out would hurt their g pa s .
o f her teacher’s job evaluation. She’d come remedial classes where she was drilled on ba­ Kiana talked about this with Mr. Katz,
into class, she said, but would spend the sic skills, like reading paragraphs to find the who regularly met with students who need­
hour quietly studying. topic sentence and then filling in the right ed extra help during his lunch h o u r and
The teacher stared at her dark-brown bubbles on a practice test. She didn’t get to after school. O ne day during their tutoring
eyes in silence while students shuffled past. read whole books like her peers in the regu­ session, he m entioned Gandhi. Kiana went
“T hat’s a mistake,” he said with a deep sigh. lar class or practice her writing, analysis, and to the library and found some o f G andhi’s
By her own estimate, Kiana had spent debating—skills she would need for the polit­ essays. She determ ined that w hat it took
about three m onths during each o f her ical science degree she dreamed of, or for the to make change was someone taking a per­
four years at University High in O rlando school board candidacy that she envisioned. sonal stand.
preparing for and taking standardized tests (Sorting students into remedial classes, edu­ N ext, she researched state education
that determined everything from her GPA to cational research shows, actually depresses rules and discovered th a t the end-of-
her school’s fate. “These tests were cutting achievement among African American and course tests that Florida required in every
out class tim e,” she says. “We would stop Latino students in many cases, yet it remains subject were being used primarily for job
whatever we were learning to prepare.” The com mon practice.) evaluations. (She says one teacher told
spring o f her senior year, she says, there were Kiana was living with her m other, and her: “Please take [the test]. M y paycheck
three whole m onths when she couldn’t get times were tough. Some days there was no depends on it.”)
access to com puters at school (she didn’t food in the house. “The only thing that kept The English teacher started passing out
have one at home) to do homework or fill me going to school was my math teacher,” the com puter tablets used to take the test.

B y t h e t im e s h e g r a d u a te s , t h e a v e ra g e U S s t u d e n t h a s g o n e t h r o u g h m o r e th a n 113 s ta n d a r d iz e d
te s ts . T h is y e a r, Kiana Hernandez b e c a m e o n e o f a g r o w in g n u m b e r o f k id s s a y in g : E n o u g h .

BY KRISTINA RIZGA

lil P H O T O BY ROBYN T W O M E Y
 He put one on her desk. Kiana raised her struggling, students told me that preparing
hand. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m not A c h ild e n te rin g
for such tests cut into things that advanced
going to take this test.” p re k in d e rg a rte n
their education-projects, field trips, and
The noise dropped abruptly. to d a y w ill take, on
electives like music or computer classes.
“You should wait until you are done with average,
“Testing felt like such a waste,” Alexia
high school before you try to change the

113
Garcia, a 2013 graduate o f Lincoln High
world,” the teacher said. in Portland, Oregon, told me. “It felt really
Kiana reached into her backpack and irrelevant and disconnected from what we
pulled out a notebook to prepare for her were doing in classes.” As a senior, Garcia
psychology final. standardized became a lead organizer with the Portland
assessments Student Union, a coalition with members
b y th e tim e h e o r
in 12 area high schools that has been one
warned that a flood
C R IT IC S H A V E L O N G she graduates fro m
o f the most visible student groups in the
of standardized testing is distorting Ameri­ public school.
national student opt-out movement. Gar­
can education. But in recent months, an cia, who is now at Vassar College, told me
Public school stu de nts
unprecedented num ber o f students like that this year-thanks to the Black Lives
in grades 3 to 8 take
Kiana, along with teachers and parents Matter m ovem ent-students are also in­
an average o f
across the country, have chosen to take creasingly talking about how standardized
matters into their own hands-by simply
refusing to take part.
“This school year saw by far some of the
largest numbers of families opting out from
standardized tests in history,” Bob Schaeffer,
director of public education at the advocacy
10
standardized tests
p eryea r. In som e
testing contributes to inequality and ulti­
mately the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Joshua Katz, Kiana Hernandez’s math
teacher, says he tests his students using a
variety o f challenges and quizzes, but the
only ones that officially count are the
group FairTest.org, told me this spring. In schools, th e n u m b e r
fill-in-the-bubble variety. “They tell me I
New Jersey, 15 percent of high school stu­ is as h ig h as 20.
must have data, and they don’t consider
dents chose not to take state tests in the tests data unless it comes from multiple-
In Ohio, stu de nts
2014-15 school year. In New York state, only choice,” Katz told me.
spend nearly
a few districts reported meeting 95 percent Every nine weeks, Katz has to stop

35
participation, the minimum required by whatever his students are doing and make
federal rules, according to a New York Times time for the district’s benchmark tests
investigation. There are opt-out activists in measuring student progress toward the
every state, and in Florida-thanks in part to big C om m on Core exam in the spring.
the hardcore pro-testing policies implement­ hours (Proponents o f the Com m on Core stan­
ed by former Gov. Jeb Bush-the backlash is p e ry e a r
dards, now in place in 43 states, promised
especially severe. in sta n d a rd ize d te sts
fewer tests and less o f a focus on multiple-
“H alf the counties in Florida have an and p ra ctice tests.
choice. But most o f the teachers told me
opt-out group,” Cindy Hamilton, a parent there had been no change in the number
and cofounder o f O pt O ut Orlando, told o f standardized assessments. “This year
me. She said her group is not against tests was a circus-16 weeks o f testing scheduled
per se, but against the process being taken third- to eighth-graders take 10 standardized at the high school level,” Katz said.)
out o f the hands o f teachers and schools tests each year on average, and some take And University High, whose neighbor­
and turned over to outside vendors. (As up to 20. By contrast, students in Europe hood and student population is largely mid­
npr’s Anya Kamenetz has documented, the rarely encounter multiple-choice questions dle class, didn’t bear as heavy a load of tests
testing industry, controlled by a handful of in their national assessments and instead and drills as its poorer counterparts: One
companies such as CBT/McGraw-Hill, Har- write essays that are graded by trained edu­ recent study found that urban high school
court, and Pearson, has grown from $263 cators. Students in England, New Zealand, students spend 266 percent more time tak­
million worth o f sales in 1997 to $2 bil­ and Singapore are also evaluated through ing district-level exams than their suburban
lion.) “Our movement,” Hamilton said, “is projects like presentations, science investi­ counterparts. That’s in part because the
civil disobedience against the gathering of gations, and collaborative assignments, de­ stakes for these schools are so high: Test
all of this data by for-profit companies that signed to both mimic what professionals do scores determine not just how much fund­
doesn’t help students learn.” in the real world and provide data on what ing a school will get, but whether it will be al­
Students in American public schools to­ students are learning. lowed to stay open at all. In response, some
day take more standardized tests than their In the past three years, I interviewed hun­ administrators have been taking desperate
peers in any other industrialized country. dreds of students across the nation while re­ measures, including pushing the lowest-
A 2014 survey o f 14 large districts by the porting my book, Mission High. In schools performing students out entirely. Suspen­
Center for American Progress found that both urban and suburban, affluent and sions have been growing across the country,

4 0 M O T H E R J O N E S I SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
 SORRY, I'M NOT T A KIN G THIS TEST"

especially among African American and teacher evaluations to include these scores a high-speed elevator supported by well-paid
Latino students, and many researchers cor­ as a factor-and many states have introduced teachers, intellectually challenging classes,
relate this with pressure to raise scores. And new tests just for this purpose. Until this and private tutors. Middle-class kids are on
in the 2011-12 school year, the Government year, Florida used end-of-course tests in vir­ an escalator. Their parents may struggle to
Accountability Office reported that officials tually every subject to give bonuses to some keep up, but still can access resources to help
in 33 states confirmed at least one instance teachers and punish others. W hen Kiana’s their children prepare for college. And then
o f school staff flat-out cheating. math teacher, Joshua Katz, was downgraded there are low-income students like Kiana,
to “effective” from “highly effective” this who are left running up a staircase with miss­
year, his salary was slated to drop by $1,100. ing steps and no handrails.
W ITH SO MUCH controversy revolving But while using student test scores to rate W hen it comes to standardized testing,
around the effect o f testing on struggling teachers may seem intuitive, researchers say this means that schools that educate low-
students and schools, it’s hard to remember it actually flies in the face of the evidence: income students start out at a disadvantage:
that the movement’s original goal was to Decades o f data indicates that better re­ They are much more likely to have lower-
level the educational playing field. In 1965, sults come not from hiring innately better paid and less-qualified teachers; lack college
as part of the War on Poverty, the Johnson teachers, but from helping them improve preparatory classes, books, and supplies; and
administration sent extra federal funding through constant training and feedback. offer fewer arts and sports programs. When
to low-income schools, and in return asked Perhaps that’s why no other their students don’t make it
for data to make sure the money was mak­ nation in the world uses an­ to the same “proficiency”
nual, standardized tests to Average te stin g hours benchmarks on yearly tests
ing an impact. As more states started using
by grade fo r students
standardized tests in the 1970s and 1980s, set teacher salaries. (Other as their wealthier coun­
in Ohio: terparts, politicians label
urban education researchers were able to countries use test scores to
identify which schools were helping stu­ push teachers to improve, K 11.3 them and their teachers as
dents of color and those from poor families but not to punish them.) 1st 11.6 “failing.” And that begins
achieve—giving the lie to the idea that these Nor do other developed 2nd 13.6 a vicious cycle: Struggling
nations have such a drastic 3rd 28.0 students are pushed into
students couldn’t succeed.
4th 24.0 remedial classes that zero in
By the late ’80s, many educators were gap in funding between rich
5th 22.6 on what’s measured on the
pushing to deploy reliable, external data and poor schools. Mission
6th 22.3 tests, further limiting their
to measure student progress, a movement High School in San Fran­
yth 21.1
that culminated in the bipartisan support cisco, for example, spends opportunities to learn the
8th 23.0
for President George W. Bush’s No Child $9,780 per student, while advanced skills they’ll need
9th 20.4
Left Behind initiative. W ith nclb , states schools in Palo Alto, just 30 in college or the workplace.
10th 28.4
were required to gather and analyze vast miles away, spend $14,995. “W hat I observed was
11th 18.9
amounts o f testing data by race, ethnicity, New York spends $19,818 egregious,” Ceresta Smith,
12th 12.2
and class. Researchers soon started m in­ per student, California just a 26-year veteran teacher in
A v e ra g e : 1 9 .8
ing this information, convinced that they $9,220. The per student Miami and a cofounder of
could reveal what really worked in educa­ funding gap between rich United Opt Out National,
tion. One 2006 study found that putting and poor schools nation­ Urban students told me about a predomi­
wide has grown 44 percent spend fa r more nantly African American,
students in a top-rated teacher’s class raised
tim e on district- low-income school where
average scores by 5 percentage points. An­ in the last decade-even as
mandated tests
other connected increases in test scores the number o f needy stu­ she worked from 2008 to
th an those in
to higher earning levels, lower pregnancy dents has grown. In 2013, the suburbs— 266%
2010. Some teachers tried
rates, and higher college acceptance rates. for the first time in at least to incorporate writing and
Findings like this encouraged two major 50 years, a majority of US in tellectually engaging
beliefs in policy circles: First, that test scores public school students came readings, she said, but
were a key factor in how students would from low-income families. most resorted to remedia­
do later in life. And second, that the best All this presents a signifi­ tion o f basic skills. “Stu­
way to improve teaching was to reward the cant risk for a country that dents are reading random
top performers and fire the bottom ones, has relied on schools as the passages and practice pick­
based in large part on their students’ scores. primary avenue for social ing the correct multiple-
High-profile charter schools like kipp and mobility. Prudence L. Cart­ choice. It was very separate
Uncommon Schools, whose model relied er, a professor in the school and unequal.”
in part on avoiding teacher tenure, helped o f education at Stanford The p ro p o n e n ts o f
cement that belief. University, says in fact, kids testing-based reform like
By 2009, President Barack Obama used have very different oppor­ to argue that—while imper­
his Race to the Top initiative to promote tunities: Affluent students fect—the current approach
using test scores to hire, fire, and com­ ride through the education has been working better
pensate teachers. Today, 35 states require system in what amounts to than any other, leading

S EP T E M B E R / O C T OB E R 2015 | M O T H E R J O N E S 41
 "SORRY, I'M NOT TAKING THIS TEST"

to rising graduation rates and standard­ Education Arne Duncan, philanthropists the recent closures o f 50 low-scoring schools
ized test scores. But as Stanford researcher like Bill Gates, some teachers, and promi­ in his native Chicago, says politicians
Linda D arling-H am m ond has pointed nent civil rights organizations such as the should look at the real world rather than
out, there’s a bit o f circular logic at work n a a c p and National Council of La Raza. listening to “education entrepreneurs who
here: A system singularly focused on pro­ “For the civil rights community, data pro­ are implementing mediocre interventions
ducing better test scores leads to...better vide the power to advocate for greater equal­ in our communities.” In Chicago, he notes,
test scores. Meanwhile, though, American ity under the law,” a coalition of 12 groups “you had young people being displaced
students’ performance compared to other argued in a recent joint statement criticiz­ as the one stable institution in our com­
nations—on tests that measure skills and ing the opt-out movement. “We cannot fix munity was eliminated. You had the mas­
knowledge more broadly-remained flat or what we cannot measure.” Some teachers I sive firing of black teachers, as if they were
declined between 2000 and 2012. spoke to echoed that message: Lauren Fine, the problem-when equity never existed.”
Most importandy, test-based accountabil­ an elementary-school teacher in Denver, be­
ity is failing on its most important mandate- lieves that without the standards and annual
eliminating the achievement gap between assessments, we won’t be able to maintain “a SO A S S U M E FOR A moment that the opt-
different groups o f students. While racial high bar for every student.” President Barack outers succeed: W e’d still need ways to
gaps have narrowed slightly since 2001, they improve teaching, assess what students are
remain stubbornly large. The gaps in math learning, and reduce the achievement gaps.
and reading for African American and La­ How should that happen instead?
Teachers in schools w ith th e
tino students shrank far more dramatically h ig h e st share o f black and Latino I found some answers as I spent two
before No Child Left Behind-when policies s tu d e n ts are paid ro u g h ly years in classrooms with Pirette McKamey,
focused on equalizing funding and school

$2,000
a highly respected teacher at Mission High,
integration, rather than on test scores. In and Ajanee Greene, a bright, resilient senior
the 1970s and ’80s, the achievement gap be­ who had just finished a powerful 10-page
tween black and white 13-year-olds was cut research paper-even though, as a freshman,
roughly in half nationwide. In the mid-’70s, less th a n th o s e w ith th e lo w e st she got a D in English at her old school. As
the rates at which white, black, and Latino share o f such stu d e n ts in th e
I watched McKamey and her colleagues
graduates attended college reached parity for sam e d is tric t.
design lesson plans and pore over Ajanee’s
the first and only time. writing together, I realized that a focus on ac­
In the decades since, the encouraging Black s tu d e n ts are m ore th a n
countability doesn’t have to sacrifice teach­

4 TIMES
news is that the black-white achievement ers’ growth or students’ love of learning.
gap has kept slowly shrinking. But at the One winter morning in 2013, McKamey
same time, the gap between students from and seven other teachers sat in an empty
poor and affluent families has widened classroom at Mission High. A light Feb­
as like ly as w h ite s tu d e n ts to
into a chasm, growing by 40 percent be­ ruary rain drummed against the windows
a tte n d schools w h e re less th a n 8o
tween 1985 and 2001. Sean Reardon, a p e rcent o f te a ch e rs are as Shideh Etaat passed around roasted
Stanford professor who focuses on pov­ fu lly ce rtifie d . almonds and talked about her weekend
erty and inequality in education, says this plans. The teachers had convened for one
is n o t surprising-affluent families can o f their three weekly planning hours. This
spend more than ever on enrichment ac­ one was dedicated to in-depth case studies
tivities. He argues it’s up to government to Obama agrees with this line of reasoning o f individual students’ math worksheets,
level the playing field, by making sure low- and recently said that as Congress debates essay drafts, and written notes for science
income students get the opportunity to rewriting the No Child Left Behind law, he lab investigations.
succeed. But in many places, government won’t sign any bills that don’t include re­ Etaat, a first-year English teacher, had
is instead pulling back from the civil rights quirements for annual testing, accountabil­ brought in a poem written by a junior named
era’s focus on educational inequality. ity, and state interventions. Jay, who came to California from Thailand
Today, many students of color are once But a growing list of others, from the stu­ two years ago. “Jay is that student who will
again going to segregated, high-poverty dents and parents in the opt-out movement say, ‘Oh, I don’t write poetry. I’m not cre­
schools that struggle to offer advanced to youth and labor groups and education ative,”’ Etaat said. “But I find that English
classes and attract teachers and counselors. researchers, are arguing that the push for learners are able to see outside o f the box.
Some 40 percent of black and Latino stu­ standardized testing has in fact exacerbated They have an ability to play with language
dents now are in schools at which 90 to 100 inequities. Journey for Justice is a coalition in this really creative way.”
percent of the student body are kids of color. of grassroots youth and parent groups in 21 Etaat explained that she’d given her stu­
cities. “Our concern is that the people who dents photos o f five different pairs o f shoes.
are most directly impacted by these educa­ She’d asked them to pick a pair they would
the test-based reform move­
T O BE S U R E , tion policies are never consulted,” director not wear, and to create a character to go with
m ent still has powerful p ro p o n en ts- Jitu Brown told me. them. She passed out the “scaffolding” docu­
politicians like Jeb Bush and Secretary of Brown, who saw firsthand the impact of mentation for her lesson-directions for how

Data sourcing at m otherjones.com/testing. Research com piled by Gregory Barber.

 P ercen ta g e o f pu blic school s tu d e n ts w h o a re lo w in co m e test scores or even financial bonuses. “What
teachers care about,” she said, “is the feed­
■ 0-38 ■ 38-42 42-47 47-50 ■ 51 and above back they get from students, parents, and
peers they respect.”
Max Anders, a first-year English teacher,
told me that working with McKamey helped
him learn how to teach every student indi­
vidually. “My understanding before was
you give work for the middle,” explained
Anders, who was teaching Plato’s “The Al­
legory of the Cave” at the time. “But the best
approach is to give rigorous work that chal­
lenges everyone and learn how to break it up
and scaffold it just right.”

office is
M C K A M E Y ’ S S M A L L , S U N L IT
lined with binders filled with the lesson
plans she has built up over the last 27 years
of teaching, including one for Tim O ’Brien’s
Vietnam War memoir, The Things They Car­
ried. Every year she teaches the novel, McK­
to develop a character, some sample stanzas, They talked about the craft of grading and amey adds material to the binder, because
a poem she had written herself based on the commenting on student work. When teach­ she leams new things from her students and
assignment. Educational theorists call this ers provide feedback on writing, research colleagues each time. Underneath her heavy
teaching in the "zone of proximal develop­ shows, many default to a “what’s wrong desk, three pairs of shoes sit neady lined up:
ment”: that place where we can’t progress with this paper” strategy, instead of writing black loafers and Mary Janes for teaching
by ourselves, but we can with targeted assis­ responses that promote growth. “Every time and coaching, light-gray sneakers for dance
tance and constructive feedback. a student does an assignment, they are com­ class after school.
The wind whistled through the old win­ municating something about their think­ I talked to Ajanee Greene in that office
dow frames as the teachers read Jay’s poem. ing,” McKamey told the group. “And even one afternoon. Independent and astute, Aja­
My shoes look like apair o f cheap running shoes if it’s far away from what I thought they’d nee wrote the strongest research papers in
Full of sweat and heat do, they are still communicating the ways the English classes I’d been observing. She
In his shoes, he works hard every day they are putting the pieces together. There was about to become the first in her fam­
He sees himselfworking in the mud are so many opportunities to miss certain ily to graduate from high school and had
A nd sleeping on the street with other hobos students and not see them, not hear them, started filling out college applications.
In my shoes, I see a student running in the shut them down. It takes a lot of skill, experi­ From the m om ent she stepped into
hallway ence, and patience not to do that.” Looking McKamey’s classroom, Ajanee told me, she
Trying to get his lunch as early aspossible over multiple-choice questions doesn’t help started to feel like an intelligent person. “By
In his shoes, he hears the heavy metal noise of teachers detect these signals, McKamey told middle school, I could tell which teacher is
his hammer me, because they won’t tell you where and looking at my grades and test scores and is
Striking at that thickjet black rock until it re­ why someone got stuck. just teaching me basics without opportuni­
solves In other words: It’s not just students ties to challenge myself. Just because I strug­
In my shoes, I hear the noisy noise coming out who miss out on a chance to learn when gle with some grammar mles doesn’t mean I
of the classroom standardized tests set the pace. Teachers, can’t think deeply. Ms. McKamey believed
The sound o f electronicdevices and ceaseless hip too, lose opportunities to improve their in me and then pushed me to work really,
hop music craft and professional judgment-for exam­ really hard.”
In his shoes, hefeelspain comingfrom his body, ple, detecting where their students’ think­ Ajanee and McKamey had just finished
Thepain o f loneliness and betrayal... ing hits what McKamey calls a “knot” and their lunch meeting, an occasional check-in
“It’s very hard to scaffold creativity just figuring out how they can improve. That’s to talk about life and school. As McKamey
right,” said Dayna Soares, a second-year when many fall back on the only available left for a meeting, Ajanee told me that she’d
math teacher. “Sometimes teachers give option: repetitive instruction, more test­ chosen the topic for her paper—titled “Black
you a blank paper and that’s too much ing, and remediation. on Black Violence: Why We Do This to
freedom. I’m always struggling with this— W hat’s essential for teachers to grow, Ourselves’-because she’d lost her stepfather
how can I give my students just enough McKamey told me, is collaboration with and several close friends to gun violence.
structure, but in a way that doesn’t make fellow professionals—and that mutual ac­ For the paper, Ajanee had read and ana­
them fill in the blanks?” countability, she said, is more effective than lyzed about 20 articles [continued on page 62\

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 | M O T H E R J O N E S 4 3
 " s o r ry . I'm n o t t a k i n g th is t e s t ”
[continuedfrom page 43] and studies and, to school by 6:30, left for dance class at
with McKamey’s encouragement, had in­ 4:30 p.m., and then worked almost every
terviewed her neighbors and added her evening and every Sunday. Most teachers I
own point o f view. She didn’t like how the met worked with students after school and
local paper described her stepfather as a colleagues on weekends, without pay.
“flashy” man who had recendy purchased a And yet the story o f Mission High holds
piece o f new jewelry-implying, it seemed out hope for a different kind o f school
to her, that greed might have been the rea­ reform -one that builds on resources that
son he’d been shot. already exist in thousands o f schools and
Ajanee wanted her readers to under­ doesn’t require spending a dime on the
stand that her stepdad was a dedicated next generation o f tests, software, or teacher
father o f four who was home with his sev- evaluation forms. That’s because Mission
en-year-old nephew when he was killed. has already been through exactly the kind
The violence didn’t just affect the victims; of harsh treatment for “failing” schools that
it scarred the survivors, Ajanee wrote. “Per­ the standardized-testing movement sup­
sonal, private, solitary pain is more terri­ ports—and then it found another way.
fying than what anyone can inflict. The In the mid-1990s, Mission had rock-
violence stays with families and becomes bottom test scores and was targeted by
a part of their lives. Nobody feels the same the district for “reconstitution.” The prin­
A b o o k a b o u t h e ro e s , and family relationships get strained.” She cipal was removed and half the teachers
t h e e n v ir o n m e n t, also added a section on the history o f slav­ were reassigned. Yet in 2001, the school
c o m m u n ic a tio n , ery and Jim Crow, writing, “The epidemic once again had some o f the lowest test
d e v o t io n , a n d c a rin g . o f African Americans killing each other scores and attendance rates among all of
didn’t start because we just hate each oth­ San Francisco’s high schools, and more
N o w a v a ila b le a t: er. It started when we began to believe the teachers were leaving it than almost any
b a r n e s a n d n o b le .c o m things other races said about us and began other school in the district.
a n d fre e a t b o b c o o k s .c o m to hate ourselves.” Then Mission High tried something new.
“When you go to school, you leam about Instead of bringing in consultants, it mobi­
math and reading, but you rarely leam new lized a small group o f teachers—including
ways o f looking and thinking about life,” McKamey-to lead reforms on their own.
100% C O T T O N Ajanee explained. “Learning the skills to re­ It increased paid time for them to plan les­
bras, underwear search and write this paper helped me learn sons together, design assessments, and ana­
and clothing in
over 200 sizes so much: how many people are dying, why lyze outcomes. The teachers made videos
and 20 colors! All they are dying, how to tell the stories of
made to order in of students talking about what kind o f in­
the US, we have others and learn about the world. It gave struction helped them succeed. They read
organic cotton and
latex-free options
me a better understanding.” research about how integrated classes, per­
available. You'll She got an A- for the paper. “W hen they sonalized teaching, and culturally relevant
find exceptional
quality and unbeat­ told me the grade, I thought it must have curriculum increased achievement. They
able service to been a mistake,” she says-she’d read her
help you find the
asked successful teachers to coach col­
com fort you deserve! classmates’ drafts and didn’t think hers leagues who needed help.
Call 1 -800-505 -49 49 fo r a FREE catalog, or measured up. “Before this, the longest pa­ To focus their efforts and keep each other
fin d us online at w w w .dece ntexp osures.com
per I wrote was three pages. Now, if I have accountable, McKamey and her colleagues
to write 15 pages in college next year, I feel regularly pore over data, both qualitative
ready,” she told me. (That was in 2013. This and quantitative. They look at achievement
year, after two years in community college, gaps, attendance, referrals, graduation rates,
BERNARD F. DUHON, LTD. Ajanee transferred to Jackson State Univer­ and test scores. They also walk through
■A 'ProfessionaCLaw Corporation sity in Mississippi.) classrooms, delve into student work, and
But as politicians, economists, and phi­ interview teachers and students. “We are al­
lanthropists focus on ever more sophisti­ ways looking at and trying to understand dif­
cated num ber crunching, opportunities ferent kinds o f data, including anecdotal,”
for teachers to nurture students’ intellect McKamey told me. “Then we can setde on
the way McKamey does have grown more something we need to concentrate on each
S ervices in v o lv in g se rio u s in ju ry .
P ersonal ca re fo r e v e ry clie n t.
limited. Mission High teachers never com­ year.” One year, social studies teachers dis­
plained to me about being overworked, but covered that too many students didn’t fully
3 3 7 8 9 3 -5 0 6 6
- they worked more hours than anyone I met grasp the difference between summarizing
w w w .B e rn a rd D u h o n .co m in the corporate world. For more than a a text versus analyzing it, so they spent the
decade, McKamey woke up at 5 a.m., got next year building more opportunities to

6 2 M O T H E R J O N E S I SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
practice those skills. The math department,
meanwhile, focused on one-on-one coach­
ing to help set up effective group work.
By contrast, back in Florida, Katz
told me that the typical way he receives
professional development entails an ob­
servation o f a model lesson by a district
consultant demonstrating how to teach
T h e r e a r e m a n y c o m m u n it y b a n k s
Com m on Core standards. While Univer­
sity High struggles to keep teachers, Mis­
J u s t n o t in o u r c o m m u n ity .
sion High has very low attrition. It is no
longer considered a “hard-to-staff ” school
There aren't a lot of banks in the South Bronx
by the district. “Mission High is famous at
and Harlem. But there are a lot of hard working
the district because it is known as a learn­ people looking to build successful lives. At
ing com m unity and a good, supportive Spring Bank, we invest in our community and
place to work,” Soares told me. “It’s hard we're helping to build something incredible.
to get a job here.”
You care about an inclusive, local economy. If
The school does well on a bevy of other
you're opening a CD, Savings or a Money
metrics, as well. The graduation rate went Market account, why not put your money
from among the lowest in the district, at where it can really help? Spring Bank is FDIC
60 percent, to 82 percent; the graduation insured and our rates are fully competitive with
rate for African American students was 20 any bank in the country.

percent higher than the district average that

Invest in our community. The return will be amazin
year. Even though close to 40 percent of
students are English learners and 75 per­
cent are poor, college enrollment rose from
55 percent in 2007 to 74 percent by 2013.
Suspensions plummeted, and in the annual
student and parent satisfaction survey from
2013, close to 90 percent said they liked the
school and would recommend it to others.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t chal­ “Climate Shock shows
lenges. Standardized test scores went up 86
points, to 641 (out of 1,000) in 2012, but conclusively how bad
that was still far from California’s target
for all schools o f 800. The numbers o f Af­ the problem truly is
rican American and Latino students in AP
math and science classes don’t fully mirror and how we can
the student body, and their passing rates
on the California high school exit exam
fix it.” i
went down in 2013 and 2014. The work
continues, but so does the commitment of Van Jones
teachers to keep at it. “No one here does
7:45 to 3:10 and then calls it quits,” science
Founder and president
teacher Becky Fulop, who has worked at of Green for All
Mission High for more than a decade, told
me. “That by itself doesn’t necessarily make
teachers effective, but the dedication here is
extraordinarily high.”
N ationally, there are thousands o f
struggling schools like Mission where
teachers are engaged in similar hard,
EDFI
ENVIRONMENTAL^
DEFENSE FUND
messy, and slow work. W hat if instead of
Finding the ways that work
spending more money on new rounds of
tests, we focused on their ability to learn
and lead on the job?
No country has ever turned around its

S E P T E M B E R /O C T O B E R 2015 | M OTHER JONES 63

 “sorry. I’m not taking thic test”
educational achievement by increasing glossy plastic open, I saw rubber bands. “Guilt, regret,” Ajanee jumped in.
standardized tests, according to research And I went, ‘Ha! I didn’t know there were “That’s right,” McKamey commented. “I
conducted by Lant Pritchett at the Center rubber bands in golf balls. I wonder what’s personally would use the word compassion.
for Global Development. The best systems, inside other balls?’ It made me curious But what you said is 100 percent correct.
it turns out, invest in supporting account­ about the world. So we are doing the same And what does that do when we realize that
ability at the school level-like those teach­ thing. We’ll analyze the author’s words to this man is the same age as us?”
er meetings at Mission High. dig in deeper.” “It makes me think that he’s young, likes
The 25 seniors had just finished reading girls, probably doesn’t want to fight in a
a chapter from The Things They Carried titled war,” Roberto said.
“ IT ’ S A LW A Y S A N A TTEM PT to hijack the “The Man I Killed.” When they were done, “Exactly. Now take that even deeper.”
effort by the teacher to think about educa­ McKamey asked them to pick out a quote “It’s like he is killing himself?” Roberto
tion,” McKamey told me one morning as they found intriguing. said more hesitantly, glancing at her for af­
we talked about the dozens o f reform ef­ David, a shy, reflective teenager whose firmation.
forts she’s seen come and go in 27 years face lit up when the class read poetry, raised “Perfect! Now you made a connection,”
of working in inner-city schools. The only his hand: McKamey said, excitement in her voice.
thing none of the politicians, consultants, “He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young “That’s what this quote is really about.
and philanthropists who came in to fix edu­ man o f about twenty. He lay with one leg bent Now, why is O ’Brien saying ‘star-shaped
cation ever tried, she said, was a systemic beneath him, hisjaw in his throat, hisface neither hole’? Why not ‘peanut-shaped’ hole?”
commitment to support teachers as leaders expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. Ajanee raised her hand. “The image in
in closing the achievement gap, one class­ The other was a star-shaped hole. ” his mind is burned.”
room at a time. “W hat do you notice in this passage?” “Exactly!” McKamey replied. “O ’Brien
“Let me remind you what analysis is,” McKamey probed. wants us to keep that same image in mind
she said a few hours later, standing in the “The man the narrator killed is the same that he had as a young soldier in his mind.
middle o f her class with those black leather age as him,” Roberto commented. It’s the kind of image you never forget.” ■
loafers from under her desk. “When I was “Exactly,” she replied. “Now you are
little, I used a hammer and screwdriver to one step deeper. W hat do I feel inside Supportfo r this story was provided by the Equity
crack a golf ball open. As I cracked that when I think o f that?” Reporting Project.

FR O M G U E R N IC A
FROM GUERNICA TO H U M A N R IG H T S
TO HUMAN RIGHTS
E S S A Y S O N T H E S P A N IS H C IV IL W A R
ESSAYS ON THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR PETER N. CARROLL

P e te r N . C a r r o ll

The best essays b y one o f the le a d in g e xpe rts on the Spanish C iv il W ar

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6 4 M O T H E R JO N E S I S E P T E M B E R /O C T O B E R 2015
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