We are entering a time of crisis in public education. As state funding is being cut, the number of students enrolling in schools will climb as families fall out of the upper echelons and can no longer afford private schools. I invite you to be part of a solution rather than allowing public education to collapse farther than it already has.
This is a very specific call to action to anyone who has been a colleague, a student, a mentor, a neighbor; as well as anyone who is willing to end standardized testing in our public high schools. You are my co-creators — my work is an outgrowth of our influences on each other.
First take a deep breath and experience this moment below the neck. This is an important first step. Next, imagine a future where:
- Any students can opt-out of testing in high school and choose to make quality videos, podcasts, email funnels, or quality academic social media campaigns for college credit
- There is a cash incentive (a 25-year basic income award) for students who come together across socio-economic divides to ensure that work approved for project-based credits is as diverse as the local population [see footnote]
In such a future, teachers would no longer have to teach to a test; instead they teach to quality journalism, or code, or videos, or podcasts, or any project with a real audience. Even if that audience is other students trying to learn the same concepts like Kahn Academy, but by students, for students.
Throughout history our youth have led social revolutions like Tiananmen Square, Indigenous Water rights, the Arab Spring, Vietnam War opposition, and the March for Our Lives, to name a few. Today we can fight for a cause by adding our voice with a short video posted on social media.
The idea of DNA credits is that we don’t change anything in our current public education infrastructure other than to move where credits are stored and how they are verified. Politicians and lawyers get cut out of decision-making with regard to setting educational standards; students and teachers gain an unprecedented opportunity to be heard.
If at this point you have questions, doubts, concerns, please set up a call with me (email me, info [at] PrincipalZ.org). Give me a chance to share stories with you showing how this is based on my eighteen years of public service in high poverty school buildings.
Make a 30 second video about your own academic experience in high school and why you support an end to standardized testing. Post your video with the hashtag #DNAcredits.
RECOMMENDED FORMAT:
· 5 seconds “My name is…. and I am….”
[“Full disclosure:…” state how you know Principal Z, if applicable]
· 10 second anecdote about your high school experience
· 15 seconds about why you support an end to standardized testing in high schools
NOTE: If you are willing to email me a copy of your video, I may post it on future campaigns as we build the DNA credits mobile app.
FOOTNOTE: Know that the lack of critical thinking in our public high schools is a major crisis. Next consider that learning without diverse perspectives cannot be considered critical thinking in this global village. Diversity of ideas is key to the health of our thinking, the health of our democracy, and the anti-fragility of our economy.
