For those unable to view the link, TN Student Speaks Out on Common Core, Teacher Evaluations, and Educational Data (
) 5:21... here is an unofficial transcript. It is by sentence with one-minute intervals marked for reference if someone wants to find a particular statement in its context. This may also make it easier for posters to discuss any particular areas of disagreement, concern, or supply additional information they may have to share regarding any specific point this student made. In viewing the video again, I'm seeing this as a potentially powerful college application letter, distinguishing this young man for his writing, presentation skills, and commitment to teachers and the art of teaching and learning.

1. In a mere 5 minutes I hope to provide insightful comments about a variety of educational topics.
2. I sincerely hope you disprove the research I compiled.
3. Here’s the history of the Common Core:
4. In 2009, The National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers partnered with Achieve Inc, a non-profit that received millions in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
5. Thus the initiative seemed to spring from States when in reality it was contrived by an insular group of testing executives with only two academic content specialists.
6. Neither specialist approved the final standards and the English consultant Dr. Sandra Stotsky publicly stated that she felt the standards left students with an empty skills set, lacking literary knowledge.
7. While educators and administrators were later included in the validation committee and feedback groups they did not play a role in the actual drafting of the standards.
8. The product is a quote "rigorous preparation for career and college" and yet many educators agree that rigorous is a buzzword.
9. These standards aren’t rigorous, just different, designed for the industrial model of school. (1:00)
10. Nevertheless, Common Core emerged.
11. Keep in mind the specific standards were never voted upon by Congress, the Department of Education, State, or Local governments.
12. Yet their implementation was approved by 49 States and Territories.
13. The President essentially bribed States into implementation via Race To The Top, offering 4.35 billion taxpayer dollars to participating States, 500 million dollars of which went to Tennessee.
14. And much like No Child Left Behind, the program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all education because, hey, it worked really well the first time.
15. While I do admire some aspects of the Core such as fewer standards and an emphasis on application and writing, it’s not going to fix our academic deficit.
16. If nothing else, these Standards are a glowing conflict of interest.
17. And they lack the research they allegedly received.
18. And most importantly, the Standards illustrate a mistrust of teachers, something I believe this county has already felt for a while.
19. I’ve been fortunate to have incredible educators that opened my eyes to the joy of learning.
20. And I love them like my family, I respect them entirely. (2:00)
21. Which is why it frustrates me to review the team in its evaluation systems.
22. These subjective anxiety-producers do more to damage a teacher’s self-esteem than you realize.
23. Erroneous evaluation, erroneous evaluation coupled with strategic compensation presents a punitive model that as a student is like watching your teacher jump through flaming hoops to try to earn a score.
24. I’ve forgot the nature of a classroom: A teacher cannot be evaluated without his students (cough) excuse me, as a… because as a craft teaching is an interaction.
25. Thus how can you expect to gauge a teacher’s success with no control for students’ participation or interest?
26. I stand before you because I care about education, but also because I care, I want to support my teachers.
27. Just as they fought for my academic achievement, so I want to fight for their ability to teach.
28. This relationship is at the heart of instruction, yet there will never be a system by which it is accurately measured.
29. But I want to take a step back; We can argue the details ad infinitum, yet I observe a much broader issue with education today. (3:02)
30. Standards-based education is ruining the way we teach and learn.
31. Yes, I’ve already been told by legislators and administrators, “Ethan, that’s just the way things work.”
32. But why? I’m going to answer that question: its bureaucratic convenience.
33. It works with nuclear reactors, it works with business models, why can’t it work with students?
34. I mean how convenient, calculating who knows what and who needs what.
35. I mean why don’t we just manufacture robots instead of students… they last longer and they always do what they’re told.
36. But education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute in our government.
37. The task of teaching is never quantifiable.
38. If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I haven’t learned anything. I’d like to repeat that. If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I have not learned anything.
39. Creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness… these are impossible to scale but they’re the purpose of education… why our teachers teach, why I choose to learn. (3:59)
40. And today we find ourselves in a nation that produces workers; Everything is career and college preparation.
41. Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves, pleading, screaming, and trying to say to us that we teach to free minds… we teach to inspire… we teach to equip… the careers will come naturally.
42. I know we’re just one city in a huge system that excitedly embraces numbers, but ask any of these teachers, ask any of my peers, and ask yourselves: Haven’t we gone too far with data? (applause)
43. I attended tonight’s meeting to share my critiques but as Benjamin Franklin quipped, “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain… and most fools do!”
44. The problems I cite are very real and I ask only that you hear them out, investigate them, and do not dismiss them as another fool’s criticisms.
45. I’ll close with a quote of Jane L. Stanford that Dr. McIntyre shared in a recent speech: “You have my entire confidence in your ability to do conscientious work to the very best advantage to the students. That they be considered paramount to all and everything else.” (5:00)
46. We’re capable of fixing education and I commit myself to that task.
47. But you cannot ignore me, my teachers, or the truth: We need change but not Common Core high stakes evaluations or more robots. Thank you. (applause)