” I thought Montclair was full of black people. Active, vocal, black people. Brown people too. I thought I was black. So did my children, who had no idea they are white—or rich (yay!). But these are the facts about New Jersey, according to the reformers: only wealthy white liberals are opting out of PARCC.”
The latest attacks by the education reformers and standardized testing advocates against the test-refusal movement have focused on the issue of race. For example, on March 25, 2015, Robert Pondiscio of The Thomas B. Fordham Institute wrote a piece titled “Opting out, race and reform.” Dependably divisive Laura Waters then jumped on the bandwagon. As a white, suburban mom who is part of the test-refusal movement, I know from personal experience that this latest reformer narrative is deeply flawed, but I recognize that a privileged white woman arguing with other privileged white people about the experiences of people of color is an effective silencing of people of colors’ own voices. So instead I reached out to friends of color who refused to allow their children to take the PARCC. Below is a guest voice piece by my friend and neighbor, Belinda Edmondson, who has two children in…
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Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé 