Providence Student Union: Take the Test - Updated with Ravitch Appeal to Support PSU

Where the people pushing high stakes testing are themselves challenged to "Take the Test." And as this film from the Providence Student Union shows, they don't do all too well.

Take The Test from Providence Student Union on Vimeo.

Diane Ravitch urges you to support the PSU:

Please Help the Providence Student Union

by dianerav

I am re-posting this appeal to help a great group of high school youth.

For their valiant, smart, witty efforts to save their schools and future generations from the blight of high-stakes testing, I name them to the honor roll as champions of public education. May they grow and flourish!

I am a huge fan of the Providence Student Union.

I just donated to them to help them continue their movement and to encourage students in other cities and states to organize against high-stakes testing.

Please consider going to their web page and supporting them. I love their energy, their idealism, their wit, and their creativity.

I share their belief that education should be engaging, exciting, and a source of inspiration and joy. They have energetically protested the soul-deadening emphasis on high-stakes testing in Rhode Island. And they have expressed their own vision for real education.

Best of all, they have mastered the art of political theater to publicize their work.

First, they held a zombie protest in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education building, protesting the state's dead zombie policies.

Then, they persuaded accomplished professionals to take a test made up of released items from the NECAP test, which the state has inappropriately made a graduation requirement.

Just days ago, they delivered their First Annual State of the Student Address, describing their vision for real education. They timed it so that it was one hour before the State Commissioner Deborah Gist's annual state of education address to the Legislature. Gist, you may recall, won national acclaim for threatening to fire every employee of Central Falls High School due to its low test scores.

Because of the PSU's political theater, the Boston Globe came out against the use (mis-use) of NECAP as a graduation requirement.

The Providence Student Union represents the best of American youth. They are independent, creative, active, fearless. They are what we hope for our nation in the future. Help them thrive.