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I'm a senior at Paul Robeson high school, and I'm an organizer with Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS). We are led by students from across Chicago in 25 different high schools and we believe in justice and equality for all. Today over 300 Chicago students are boycotting, including 100 juniors who are boycotting the state exam, to tell Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that we are over-tested, under-resourced and fed up!
Mayor Emanuel and his Board of Education want to close 54 grammar schools around the city, all of which are in black and Latino communities: this is racist. These schools are also being judged based on assessments and tests given throughout the year: this is foolish. These school closings will leave neighborhoods dismantled, parents lost, students unaccounted for, and more importantly, will put children in harmful situations: this is dangerous.
My alma mater, Benjamin Banneker elementary, is one of the 54 schools on the list. But Banneker built a community around the school and around me. Although I started at Banneker as a troubled inner city child, growing up in this school taught me the transition into the real world, and how to be a man. Even now, four years after receiving my 8th-grade diploma, I still routinely visit the school to show my appreciation for what they did for me and many other students in my neighborhood.
But this boycott is about more than just Banneker, and more than just me. It's about every child in every neighborhood. Mayor Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education are supposed to make the CPS system work for all of us. But instead they are putting too much pressure on standardized testing and threatening to close schools that don't have high test scores. When schools are under so much pressure to raise test scores it leads to low-scoring students being neglected, not supported. This is what happened when 68 low-scoring juniors were demoted to sophomore status at a southwest side high school in Chicago last month, right before the state test.
We are the Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools. If you are ready to fight back, then join our boycott and make history with us.
For those of you across the country sharing similar beliefs, we ask that you choose a standardized test to boycott too as we fight against this unjust and excessive testing. We would also ask that you reach out to us, so that this movement can become even bigger. The day will come when students will finally have our voices heard. School board officials will finally realize that we as students can assemble in a professional manner to accomplish a goal. And we will have the power nationwide to assemble, and fight against any injustice we are subjected to and create the school system we all deserve.
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
I'm a senior at Paul Robeson high school, and I'm an organizer with Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS). We are led by students from across Chicago in 25 different high schools and we believe in justice and equality for all. Today over 300 Chicago students are boycotting, including 100 juniors who are boycotting the state exam, to tell Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that we are over-tested, under-resourced and fed up!
Mayor Emanuel and his Board of Education want to close 54 grammar schools around the city, all of which are in black and Latino communities: this is racist. These schools are also being judged based on assessments and tests given throughout the year: this is foolish. These school closings will leave neighborhoods dismantled, parents lost, students unaccounted for, and more importantly, will put children in harmful situations: this is dangerous.
My alma mater, Benjamin Banneker elementary, is one of the 54 schools on the list. But Banneker built a community around the school and around me. Although I started at Banneker as a troubled inner city child, growing up in this school taught me the transition into the real world, and how to be a man. Even now, four years after receiving my 8th-grade diploma, I still routinely visit the school to show my appreciation for what they did for me and many other students in my neighborhood.
But this boycott is about more than just Banneker, and more than just me. It's about every child in every neighborhood. Mayor Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education are supposed to make the CPS system work for all of us. But instead they are putting too much pressure on standardized testing and threatening to close schools that don't have high test scores. When schools are under so much pressure to raise test scores it leads to low-scoring students being neglected, not supported. This is what happened when 68 low-scoring juniors were demoted to sophomore status at a southwest side high school in Chicago last month, right before the state test.
We are the Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools. If you are ready to fight back, then join our boycott and make history with us.
For those of you across the country sharing similar beliefs, we ask that you choose a standardized test to boycott too as we fight against this unjust and excessive testing. We would also ask that you reach out to us, so that this movement can become even bigger. The day will come when students will finally have our voices heard. School board officials will finally realize that we as students can assemble in a professional manner to accomplish a goal. And we will have the power nationwide to assemble, and fight against any injustice we are subjected to and create the school system we all deserve.
I'm a senior at Paul Robeson high school, and I'm an organizer with Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS). We are led by students from across Chicago in 25 different high schools and we believe in justice and equality for all. Today over 300 Chicago students are boycotting, including 100 juniors who are boycotting the state exam, to tell Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that we are over-tested, under-resourced and fed up!
Mayor Emanuel and his Board of Education want to close 54 grammar schools around the city, all of which are in black and Latino communities: this is racist. These schools are also being judged based on assessments and tests given throughout the year: this is foolish. These school closings will leave neighborhoods dismantled, parents lost, students unaccounted for, and more importantly, will put children in harmful situations: this is dangerous.
My alma mater, Benjamin Banneker elementary, is one of the 54 schools on the list. But Banneker built a community around the school and around me. Although I started at Banneker as a troubled inner city child, growing up in this school taught me the transition into the real world, and how to be a man. Even now, four years after receiving my 8th-grade diploma, I still routinely visit the school to show my appreciation for what they did for me and many other students in my neighborhood.
But this boycott is about more than just Banneker, and more than just me. It's about every child in every neighborhood. Mayor Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education are supposed to make the CPS system work for all of us. But instead they are putting too much pressure on standardized testing and threatening to close schools that don't have high test scores. When schools are under so much pressure to raise test scores it leads to low-scoring students being neglected, not supported. This is what happened when 68 low-scoring juniors were demoted to sophomore status at a southwest side high school in Chicago last month, right before the state test.
We are the Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools. If you are ready to fight back, then join our boycott and make history with us.
For those of you across the country sharing similar beliefs, we ask that you choose a standardized test to boycott too as we fight against this unjust and excessive testing. We would also ask that you reach out to us, so that this movement can become even bigger. The day will come when students will finally have our voices heard. School board officials will finally realize that we as students can assemble in a professional manner to accomplish a goal. And we will have the power nationwide to assemble, and fight against any injustice we are subjected to and create the school system we all deserve.