Free Accountable to Our Students —
Accountable to Their Communities
Rethinking Schools has assembled two new books that focus on what teachers are really accountable for: the learning, empowerment, and well-being of their students. In this section of the magazine, we are honored to offer five new articles from those books.
RETHINKING ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Free A Message from a Black Mom to Her Son
By Dyan Watson
An African American mother and teacher educator uses examples from her own childhood to describe how she hopes her child will be treated by teachers, and what she fears.
Free Writing for Justice • Persuasion from the Inside Out
By Mark Hansen
An elementary school teacher takes us
inside his classroom to see how he builds
on his students’ lives and passions to
help them create persuasive essays.
PENCILS DOWN!
Rethinking Standardized Testing and Accountability in Public Schools
Free About Those Tests I Gave You • An Open Letter to My Students
By Ruth Ann Dandrea
A middle school language arts
teacher apologizes to her students
for the state’s narrow and deceptive
standardized test.
Free Testing Our Limits
By Melissa Bollow Tempel
First graders, three at a time, use classroom computers
to take standardized tests. Their teacher explains the
impact on the students and herself.
Playing Smart • Resisting the Script
By Wayne Au
Scripted curriculum de-skills teachers and rewards
students for passivity, not critical thinking. A
teacher educator urges teachers to organize
and fight back.
OTHER FEATURES
Free Challenging Corporate Ed Reform • And 10 Hopeful Signs of Resistance
By Stan Karp
The failures of the corporate education “reform”
movement leave it vulnerable to genuine
grassroots school transformation.
Sin Fronteras Boy • Students Create Collaborative Websites to Explore the Border
By Grace Cornell
Fourth-grade English language learners use wikis
to study border issues and gain literacy skills.
Dirty Oil and Shovel-Ready Jobs • A Role Play on Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline
By Abby Mac Phail
High school students learn about the conflict
over the pipeline by participating in a role play.
COLUMNS and DEPARTMENTS
EDITORIALS
Free Occupy Education
By the editors of Rethinking Schools
Free Outlawing Solidarity in Arizona
By the editors of Rethinking Schools
Free SHORT STUFF
Defending Tucson’s Mexican American Studies Program
United Opt Out Occupies DOE
Appointed Chicago Board Slams 17 Schools
Free REVIEW
By Moé Yonamine
“But You Guys Wanted Us Here”
ANPO: Art X War Tackles the U.S. Occupation of Japan
Free GOOD STUFF
By Wayne Au
Made in Seattle
Free RESOURCESOur picks for books, websites, videos, and other resources for social justice teaching.
