“Schools today are more segregated racially and economically than at any time since 1968, the year, ironically, in which Dr. Martin Luther King was taken from us,” said Jonathan Kozol, an educator, author, and activist best known for his books on the U.S. education system.
“[Education] Secretary Arne Duncan has turned his back entirely on the precious legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education. Instead he’s very, very busy with Plessy vs. Ferguson,” Kozol said. “Mr. Duncan, listen to me. Mr. Duncan, separate but equal has never been successful. It didn’t work in the century just past, and it will not work in the century ahead, and anybody who tells us otherwise is lying to himself and to the people of America.”
Darling-Hammond criticized programs such as Teach for America.
“It is not acceptable to have schools in our cities and poorer districts staffed by a revolving door of beginning and often untrained teachers, many of whom see it as charity work on their way to a real job,” Darling-Hammond said.
Education activist Rita Solnet critiqued the standardized testing model that has been put in place in her home state of Florida.
“I had a front-row seat when Florida launched its whiz-bang one-size-fits-all Race to the Top curriculum. I watched as it robbed teachers of the flexibility to do what’s best for every child. I also watched how it robbed our children of finding out what their talents were, and nurturing those,” Solnet said.
Actor Matt Damon, whose mother was a teacher, said that if his education had been based around standardized testing, he was unsure he would ever have discovered his passion for acting.
“None of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success—none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested,” Damon said.
The emphasis on data-driven test scores has ruined the nation’s current education system, according to protesters.
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