Dear Friends,

Time Out From Testing and other organizations and individuals from across the country are launching a postcard campaign to First Lady Michelle Obama asking that she encourage the President to put an end to the use of High Stakes Testing. When she was on the campaign trail she had the following to say about the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind Program:

"No Child Left Behind is strangling the life out of most schools."
"If my future were determined by my performance on a standardized test I wouldn't be here. I guarantee that."

THOUSANDS OF US AGREE WITH HER CRITICISM. WE NEED HER HELP TO END THE RELIANCE ON HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS.

HERE IS WHAT WE NEED TO DO: On May 29th send a postcard to Michelle Obama with this message:

Dear Michelle Obama:

We want the same education for our children that you provide for Malia and Sasha.
Our child is not a test score.
Encourage the President to end the use of high stakes standardized tests!

Sincerely,

Name:
Address:
Signature

Mail to:

First Lady Michelle Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Some of you may want to tweak the wording a bit. All that we ask is that you don't dilute the main message of ending high stakes testing. Remember that once she receives the first 50 postcards, she and her staff won't be reading them but instead will be counting them.

One way to ensure the success of this campaign will be to go viral and use our listservs and Facebook. However, it requires that people go to the post office , buy a postcard and then write the message and address it. In this day and age we fear that will not happen in mass numbers. So we have designed some other ways to make sure we reach our goal of between 50,000-100,000 cards on May 29th.

FOR THIS WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF ALL OUR ORGANIZATIONS TO GO INTO THE COMMUNITY AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!

HERE ARE OUR SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS:

1. SET UP TABLES IN YOUR SCHOOLS WHEN PARENTS DROP OFF AND PICK UP THEIR KIDS AND GET THEM TO SIGN THE CARD. YOU WILL NEED TO BUY THEM AND PUT THE MESSAGE ON YOURSELF. ASK FOR A 25 CENT CONTRIBUTION. SOME WILL GIVE A DOLLAR AND SOME WON'T GIVE SO IT SHOULD BALANCE OUT.

2. ASK TEACHERS TO CIRCULATE THE CARDS AND GET THEM BACK TO YOU.

3. SET UP TABLES IN FRONT OF THE BUSIEST STORES ON A SATURDAY/SUNDAY AND COLLECT SIGNATURES ON THE CARD

4. SET UP CARD SIGNING AT YOUR LOCAL CHURCH

5. REMEMBER TO TAKE THEM TO THE OFFICE, FAMILY GATHERINGS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, SOCCER/BASEBALL GAMES

6. REMEMBER ANYONE CAN SIGN THE CARD---KIDS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, RELATIVES

The important thing is that you keep a record of how many got sent due to your outreach. We will need a count sent to us at info@timeoutfromtesting.org so that when we hold a press conference on that day, we will have an accurate count.

WE HAVE VERY LITTLE TIME TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN BUT WE KNOW THAT IF ALL OF US PULL TOGETHER OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL WEEKS IT WILL HAPPEN.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT,

TIME OUT FROM TESTING
FAIRTEST
Education Justice at Education Law Center
Citizens for Public Schools