STATE HOUSE PUBLIC HEARING ON MCAS-JUNE 20,2001
TESTIMONY BY MIKE HEICHMAN
9 JEROME ST. DORCHESTER, MA 02125
617-265-8143 mikeh@massed.net

My name is Mike Heichman. I live at 9 Jerome St. Dorchester. I'm here
today as a parent, teacher, and citizen to speak out against a system of
educational malpractice, and to stand up for all the children in this
Commonwealth and their right to receive a high quality education.

My daughter is a fourth grader at the Mission Hill Pilot School in
Roxbury. I am very blessed because she goes to a great school! That school
has a wonderful assessment system, an excellent curriculum, and a caring,
creative and hard-working staff that will not be satisfied unless every
single child receives an excellent education. Over 80% of the parents this
year, including my partner and I, refused to allow our children to take the
MCAS test. We did this because we believe that this awful test will harm our
children's education.

And parents will not let this happen! if you, members of the state
legislature, allow the current educational policy that is hurting our
children to continue, the boycott movement will become stronger. Parents
will not allow their children to be hurt by anyone, and it's a crying shame
that it is the schools that are damaging so many of them. Next year, 1000
boycotters! The following year-10,000!

I grew up in Chelsea and graduated from its high school in 1964. Since
1970, I have been blessed to teach in the city that gave me birth. A few
years ago, thanks to the support of the state, Chelsea finally built a
system of new schools. For a while, at the high school, where I have taught
since 1990, we were moving in the right direction. Not only did we have a
new school; we also had some good ideas for what should happen inside that
building. We had four smaller schools-within-a-school giving teachers and
students some choices about their education. The professional development
was greatly improved; I, (as well as most of my colleagues) took advantage
of opportunities to improve my knowledge of my subjects and also to improve
the art of my teaching in the diverse and challenging setting of my school.

We are now rapidly moving in the wrong direction. The
schools-within-a-school are long gone; tracking of students has come back;
and every year thee are fewer and fewer electives. In my History department,
except for the tracking, there is only one elective left-A.P. European
History. We are a MCAS school and there is a lot of pressure to cover the
frameworks and to prepare our students to do well on this unfair system of
assessment. Every year there are four days of practice as our whole school's
schedule is changed so that the tenth graders can take two-period exams in
the areas of English, History, Math and Science. If they need more time,
they can stay the rest of the day, thus missing more time from their
classes. We are in effect spending time all year long preparing our students
to take these exams. In the spring, our school's schedule is interrupted
once again as our students spend hours and hours, away from their education,
taking these awful and unfair tests. These efforts are hurting my children
and damaging their education.

As a teacher, I am a mandatory reporter. If I'm suspicious that one of
my students is being victimized by either neglect or abuse, I am legally
mandated to report this to my superiors. What I have experienced the last
few years goes beyond suspicion. I am a mandatory reporter and I have an
ethical obligation to tell you today that I am participating in a system
that is failing most of my students; these are my children, too. I am
participating in a system of educational malpractice and institutionalized
child abuse, mandated by the Board of Education and vigorously supported by
the leadership of the Chelsea Public Schools. And I want this system to
stop! I know that I, and my colleagues in Chelsea and around the state, can
do a far superior job in teaching and assessing our students. I am not
surprised, that as time goes on, experience is teaching more and more
parents, students and educators that something is terribly wrong with this
system.

I am an outraged citizen. I am outraged at the business elite of this
state that pretends to support education, but has energetically worked to
lower its taxes. Spending too much money on this awful assessment system is
still much cheaper then spending the necessary money so that all of our
schools will have the resources to better educate every child. I say to the
business community that if you truly want to support better schools, then
pay your fair share of the taxes! If you do so, there will be plenty of
money to educate every child in this Commonwealth adequately.

I am outraged at the former Governor and the Acting Governor, who have
imposed upon us a Board of Education that does not believe in fighting for
every child's right to a decent education. Rather a majority of the Board
are privateers, joining with elements of the business community and turning
more and more of our public schools into money-making organizations for
those who are already rich.

I am outraged at the leadership of the state legislature that has
conspired to have today's hearing so late in the school year. Members of the
Education Committee, what will you do today? Will you continue to side with
the Governor and the business elite and support this system that is so
harmful to our children and to their parents? Or will you take a stand with
us today and say "No to MCAS", "No to this Undemocratic and racist and
classist attack on our schools" and "Yes to a better assessment system" and
'Yes to creating a system that will have as its mission an excellent
education for every child in our state"?

Educators and parents, what should we do? We must continue, by every
means necessary, to work against this system of institutionalized child
abuse. And we must work towards the day when my child, your child and every
other child received the quality education that they deserve.