On Long Island in the summer of 2013, neon green laces started flying off the shelves. They became the symbol of the anti-high stakes testing revolution. This symbol has been embraced by thousands of educators, parents and students in an effort to stop bad tests from hurting children, the mission of a group called Lace to the Top, a grassroots organization started by two friends who met on the sidelines of their sons’ soccer practice.
Kevin Glynn and Anthony Griffin discovered not only did they share a passion for coaching and running but also for doing the right thing. They both attended a New York State United Teachers rally in Albany in June of 2013, dressed up as a pineapple and a rabbit to protest the nonsensical testing that has been going on in New York for years under No Child Left Behind and that has become exponentially more outrageous with Race to the Top and the tying in of test scores to teacher evaluations through APPR. The pineapple and the rabbit costumes were a not so subtle allusion to a story on the 2012 8th grade ELA, “The Pineapple and the Hare,” a fable that was originally written as a parody by Daniel Pinkwater and then edited by test designers to fit the ELA exam. The furor over the test question was caused by the following:
“The crux of the passage is that the pineapple challenges the hare to a race, and the other animals are convinced the pineapple must have a trick up its sleeve and will win. When the pineapple stands still, the animals eat it. The moral of the story: ‘Pineapples don’t have sleeves.’ One [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][student] said that none of the animals seemed very bright, but that a likely answer was the owl, because it was the one that uttered the moral.
Others worried that the owl was a distraction, because owls are supposed to be wise, so it would be the wrong answer. The other tough question was why the animals ate the pineapple. Students were torn between two of the four choices: they were annoyed or they were hungry; either one seemed to work” (Hartocollis).
Subsequently, due to the ambiguity of the questions and the answers, the entire passage was removed from the test, and the two men who donned the costumes in protest became two activists who spearheaded a movement that gave many who were once voiceless an opportunity to stand together.
Glynn and Griffin spent the bus ride home from Albany glued to social media, uploading pictures from the rally, and they knew a movement was born. Griffin explains how, for many weeks, the two jogged together, “trying to find the next reasonable thing for us to do, which as it turned out was to immerse ourselves in the history, economics and politics and literature of the reform movement” and to adopt a symbol that “would unite parents and teachers in support of children.” Griffin’s original concept of rainbow headbands was quickly replaced by Glynn’s vision of green laces. While the two devised a plan to use social media to build awareness and encourage everyone to wear green laces as a symbol of unity against the harmful testing program in New York and throughout the United States, they struggled to come up with a name for the group until Glynn’s wife, Taryn, came up with the clever play on words, “Lace to the Top.”
Many people started to notice posts from this fledgling group in various social media groups in the summer of 2013, and awareness of the movement was created. A very active Facebook group was born and neon green laces were threaded through running shoes and those who did not wear sneakers found creative ways of displaying their neon green either through laced up bracelets, ID lanyards, necklaces, and even neon green nail polish. The idea is to create conversation with the symbol, for people to ask those sporting it, “why are you wearing neon green laces” and the dialogue about the harmful consequences of high stakes testing to be opened up to everybody everywhere.
This dialogue gained incredible momentum when Dr. Joseph V. Rella, a man described by Diane Ravitch as a “hero educator who spoke out against New York state’s nutty and abusive scoring system” penned a letter to Senator LaValle that went viral, where he speaks out against the abuse perpetrated against students by the current system. When the predictions made by New York State Education Commissioner John King and NYSED Deputy Commissioner Ken Slentz that proficiency rates would drop to 30% to 37% were proven true, Dr. Rella knew he needed to take a stand and implored Senator Lavalle to help make things right, pointing out that “we crossed a major line. The majority of young children will receive the clear message that since these tests are predictors of college success they are not college material in 3rd, 4th, 5th grade???!! That message is unconscionable. It is hurtful to our children.” The public reaction to Dr. Rella’s letter was one of gratitude and relief that someone was taking a stand for the children who are being hurt by over-testing.
Glynn and Griffin had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Rella and they inducted him into the Lace to the Top Hall of Fame and presented him with Lace to the Top’s very first Certificate Appreciation. A rally was organized in the Comsewogue school district in late August, attended by nearly 2,000 people who believe that “students are not scores” and listened to Dr. Rella speak about how it is time to “Stop it. Fix it if can be fixed. Or scrap if it cannot be fixed.” when it comes to current education reforms. At the rally, Dr. Rella made the neon green laces and Lace to the Top the official symbol of the movement to help protect our children from educational malpractice.
Dr. Rella, whom Glynn and Griffin dubbed “our Lorax” is not the only leader who has helped further the mission of Lace to the Top. Rahana Schmalakcer has been working with Glynn and Griffin ever since the Albany rally and has been a huge part of the group’s success. Jeanette Deutermann, the leader of the Long Island Opt-Out Info Facebook group and co-founder of nysape.org is another voice for the many children who have suffered from excessive testing. Tim Farley, another brave principal willing to speak out against current education reforms was also one of the very first inductees into the Lace to the Top Hall of Fame.
The mission as described on www.lacetothetop.com is simple:
“We are here because we see something wrong in education and screaming ‘Help!’ has not worked. The media has not helped at all and elected officials have not helped enough. We need to do something even more powerful; unite. Green laces are a loud and impossible to ignore symbol of good people protecting their kids. That’s it. We were looking for a voice to share this message and we found it in Dr. Joseph Rella. The message he has set forth is simple. Stop it. Fix it. Or scrap it. The more people that wear green laces as a symbol of love for kids and rejection of abusive tests, the more likely people with the power to make change will listen.”
There are over 12,00 members of the Facebook group and 28 unions in the Lace to the Top Hall of Fame that have adopted the symbol that unites parents, teachers and educators in the fight for what is right for children. The group is always looking for more people to join the cause. It is through unity, sheer strength of numbers and passion that change will be affected to help dig our students out of the testing mess created and perpetuated by the harmful polices put in my place by current educational reform
Works Cited
Hartocollis, Anemona http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/nyregion/standardized-testing-is-blamed-for-question-about-a-sleeveless-pineapple.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1390403292-jnUo6/zGrR5wgHb1M5ZWCg.
Griffin, Anthony (personal communication January 16th 2013).http://www.lacetothetop.com
Ravitch, Dianne http://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/13/honor-dr-rella-for-standing-strong-this-saturday/.
Rella, Joseph http://comsewogue.org/files/news/letter%20to%20sen%2E%20lavalle%20and%20attachment%2Epdf[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
