Two public events in March – a film screening and a lecture – will consider the wisdom of increasing the use of standardized testing in public education.
St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28 will co-sponsor a screening of “Standardized” at 6 p.m. March 10 at the East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St. The free event is part of the library’s ongoing series of education-focused films and discussions.
The film features education experts offering their opinions on standardized testing. It’s subtitled: “Lies, Money and Civil Rights: How Testing if Ruining Public Education.”
The discussion will continue March 21, when Seattle high school history teacher and Macalester College graduate Jesse Hagopian offers a public presentation on his essay “The Testocracy versus the Educational Spring” at 7 p.m. in the college’s John B. Davis Auditorium, located at the southwest corner of Snelling and Grand Avenues.
Hagopian edited “More than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing,” a collection of essays by scholars, teachers, administrators, students and parents, published last year by Haymarket Press.
As a union activist, Hagopian was among the leaders of a historic 2013 boycott of the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test in Seattle. In 2013 he was named the national “Secondary School Teacher of the Year” by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.
He writes frequently for nationally circulated journals, and posts a widely read blog, I Am an Educator.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
Union Advocate 