Doing What is Right

Yesterday, this post on the Moyers Public School Facebook page was the buzz of social media:

In my 25 years in education I have seen many changes. As a teacher, prinicipal and superintendent, I have always tried to make these changes adapt to our particular school in a way that follows the guidelines but also takes into consideration the individual child. This has worked relatively well as I feel that we follow state guidelines and our students’ needs are always considered. Personally, as an educator, I have always felt that too much emphasis has been placed on testing but if that is what is required by individuals more qualified than myself, then that is what we will do. However, with that being said, I find myself in a very difficult position. We have a family of students whose parents were both killed in a car accident this week. When our district test administrator called the State Department of Education to ask for an emergency exemption for these students, it was denied. This is not considered a reason for exemption by the SDE. The SDE believes these students should be tested and their scores be used to not only judge them but also used to evaluate their teachers and their school at a time in their life that is unimaginable to most. So as administrator of our district, I have made the decision to go against the SDE rules and exempt these students from taking their tests. This may or may not cause our school to receive an “F” on our school report card for not meeting our testing percentage but it is the only decision that best meets the needs of our students. As an educator and a human being with a reasonable amount of common sense, I don’t feel like any test these students take during this time would be valid in any way. Testing and its importance are quickly escalating out of control and our common sense appears to be going in the opposite direction. Donna Dudley

As of this morning, that post has been shared more than 2,100 times. If you’re on Facebook, please consider sharing it. If you’ve shared it once, maybe you can comment on it again so it will cycle to the top of your news feed. Put it on Twitter. Add it to the other social media that I don’t even use (or understand).

What we have here is a superintendent who has put her neck out there to tell the story. She illustrates clearly how misguided the priorities of the people running ruining our education system really are. Maybe you can drop her a note and let her know you appreciate the fact that she’s doing the right thing for children.

And don’t ever doubt that our message is spreading. This isn’t just a resistance born of the old guard protecting what they think is theirs. This is parents. This is people who don’t have children in school. This is a wildfire, the likes of which Janet Barresi and her minions never imagined.