Chicago Students Boycott Standardized Test to Protest School Closings
On Wednesday over 100 Chicago students boycotted a standardized test in protest of the mass school closings in their city.
The test they boycotted, The Prairie State Achievement Examination, is an exam students are required to take. Instead, these young people gathered at Chicago Public Schools headquarters and made their voices heard.
The protest was organized by a group of student activists called Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools.
CSOSOS argues that the planned closure of public schools will destabilize neighborhood communities. Many have pointed out that the planned closures are overwhelmingly concentrated in black and Latino neighborhoods, and thus that the supposed reforms have a disproportionate impact on students of color. What’s more, CSOSOS and other testing critics argue that the test-driven metrics that are a central part of the move to siphon students away from neighborhood schools are an inaccurate and extremely narrow way of gauging a school’s health.
Kudos to these young people for standing up for what they believe in!
Thoughts on the mass school closings in Chicago!
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