CEJ Urges LAUSD Board Member Mike Lansing to Support Anti-High Stakes Testing Motion and to Address Poor School Conditions Demonstration Kicks Off "All Roads Lead to the Board" Campaign

On Thursday, April 18 at 4:00pm, at Washington High School (Denker and 108th), students, parents, and teachers from the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) will demonstrate with puppets, poetry, marches, student/parent testimonies, and street theatre. CEJ will demand that LAUSD Board Member Mike Lansing "do the right thing" by (1) voting "yes" on the motion coming to the Board in May that would have LAUSD study alternatives to racially-discriminatory high-stakes tests like the STAR/Stanford 9 and the High School Exit Exam (HSEE), and (2) addressing overcrowding and lack of supplies at Washington and other schools in his district. CEJ will detail its "All Roads Lead to the Board - End the Racist Tests, City Schools Deserve the Best" campaign. The campaign includes this action and an April 29th teach-in/media event in East LA, both of which build towards a May demonstration at the LAUSD Board on the day the alternative assessments motion is introduced. CEJ has strengthened the campaign by helping to organize state-wide to introduce similar motions at several districts across California.

The STAR/Stanford 9 and HSEE reward and punish students, affecting how much money schools and scholarship candidates get through the Academic Performance Index (API), and whether or not students will graduate from high school through the HSEE. CEJ opposes these tests because they are administered across unequal schools, with schools in low-income communities of color experiencing more shortages of materials, more overcrowding, higher rates of teacher turn-over, etc. Further, these tests discriminate based on language as they are given only in English. So, the punishments fall disproportionately on students in low-income communities of color. For example, (1) In 2000-2001 HSEE testing, African-American and Latino students were failed at twice the rate of whites, and low-income students at twice the rate of middle-class students (Applied Research Center), and (2) The wealthiest 10% of schools in California have received more API rewards than schools in other income brackets (California Budget Project).

Demonstration - Coalition for Educational Justice
Thursday, April 18, 4:00pm
Washington High School, 108th and Denker

CONTACT - Neelam Patil at 213-387-2800 or 310-467-1889

Washington High School, 108th and Denker

From downtown, at Broadway & 4th, take Bus 40 South to King & Normandie. Then take Bus 206 South to Normandie & 108th.
Takes about 50 minutes total.