TCLA: Why did CEJ lead a campaign last year to create an Alternative Assessment Task Force?
Alex Caputo-Pearl: For the past 3 1/2 years, CEJ has been organizing against high stakes tests. We’re concerned that tests like the High School Exit Exam and the Stanford 9 have a racially and class discriminatory impact because they’re given only in English and across all schools. However, we do agree on the need for student assessment that supports good learning and good teaching. So we pushed the LAUSD School Board to acknowledge the discriminatory impact of high stakes tests and to further study assessment systems that could replace those high stakes exams.
TCLA: Why did the LAUSD vote to create the Alternative Assessment Task Force?
ACP: CEJ students, parents and teacher leaders worked extensively with School Board Members Genethia Hayes and José Huizar to bring forward a motion to create this task force. We brought 350 of our CEJ members to the school board on April 18, 2002, the day that the board voted on this motion. We were also able to galvanize a fair amount of local and state support. We had letters coming to the board from Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg’s office and other leaders in support of the motion. And we also had it coordinated with the San Francisco Unified School District’s move on the same item. With all this work and coordination, we were able to get the board to pass this motion.
"We need to really put a face on what is lacking in schools and on what I see as institutional racism across Los Angeles."
|
TCLA: What has the task force been doing since it was created?
ACP: The task force met several times with academics, researchers, community activists, teachers, education advocates, and researchers, and came up with a report. The program evaluation and research branch of the school district also came up with a report that pointed to alternative assessments that could be explored more deeply by the district. Several of us on the task force felt that while that was good it didn’t go far enough. So twelve of us submitted a companion report that urges the district to initiate a movement among school boards around the state to put a moratorium on the High School Exit Exam. The second key thing we ask in our report is for the board to work with researchers and community members to develop some kind of surveying tool or index that would allow the state to identify what is actually lacking in a lot of these schools. Such a tool could measure and quantify how many desks are in a particular school? How many books? How many experienced teachers? How well kept are the bathrooms? How much access to language programs does the school have? We need a system to measure these things school by school. We need to really put a face on what is lacking in schools and on what I see as institutional racism across Los Angeles. We also want the board to develop a process for remedying any of the problems that come to light through this index.
TCLA: What do you hope will come out of the Board meeting on February 25th?
ACP: First, we want February 25th to be a key date in expanding our social movement of students, parents and teachers. We have organizing going on across the city around ending the High School Exit Exam and addressing poor school conditions. But we also have organizing going on around school site issues, such as, one school that had elements of institutional racism and segregation. We’re building those campaigns as well. So this rally on the 25th gives us the opportunity to bring together people from all over the city who are working on these different organizing projects with a focused demand and a focused target, the target being the board. The second thing we want is what any movement wants, which is policy change. We want the board to take a stand on the Exit Exam, to develop a measuring tool and to create a remedy process to address poor school conditions. And I think the third thing we want from February 11th is the broad participation of allies, supporters, newcomers, and people who recognize the inequalities within the system and want to become a part of something where they get the opportunity to fight for what’s right. That’s what we want for that day.
"We’re confident that right now there’s a sort of uptake in the participation of people in progressive causes and causes that are explicitly critical of government policies. "
|
TCLA: What will CEJ be doing on February 25th?
ACP: A group of us will be inside the boardroom listening to the board debate the presentation of the PERB report (Program Evaluation and Research Branch) and listening to our report and just being a watchful presence on the board. Then we'll also have a group of us outside marching around the school board offices, passing out flyers to passers by, and really making it a public event. We’re confident that right now there’s a sort of uptake in the participation of people in progressive causes and causes that are explicitly critical of government policies. A lot of that uptake is really due to the very good anti-war organizing that CEJ members have been involved in. The uptake in that participation in movements will help us to have not just a good turnout of people, but a good blending of ideas that are being put out within our rally, including educational justice issues, but also including anti-war messages and criticisms of the government in how it is dealing with problems of racism here at home and problems of U.S. militarism abroad.
