Six students from Mancos High School traveled to Colorado Springs over the weekend to speak at the Colorado Association of School Boards Convention.
When the students were done with their seven-minute speech in front of 200 members of the Rural Alliance, they got a standing ovation.
And even better, nearly everyone in the room broke a pencil.
"I was really surprised and excited at how many people supported our campaign and how many people stood up and broke their pencils at the end," said Taryn Gordanier.
The students who presented are part of a social media class. They were told to research an issue at the beginning of the year, and they chose testing. After researching the issue, the students decided that they spend way too much time taking tests, time they could spend learning.
Which is why they are breaking No. 2 pencils. A slogan on the students' social media page "Terminate Trivial Testing" has the headline "I'm Not No. 2."
People were impressed with the Mancos students' campaign, and some people asked if they would speak again. One lawmaker even indicated that he'd like them to speak when the state senate is back in session.
"It was really exciting to get our point across," Gordanier said.
The students have launched a campaign that includes numerous social media sites, T-shirts and media kits, which include No. 2 pencils for the breaking.
Adam Priestley, Mancos secondary school principal, is hoping the students' message will spread.
"We are hoping school administrators will take this back to their schools and start the march against trivial testing," he said.
Priestley said the added pressure of computer-only testing this year is going to be hard on Mancos.
Third-graders, for example, will test for 12 days.
"That is huge," Priestley said.
In addition, the four computer labs across the school district will be booked for testing from March 9 to May 22. Which means those labs won't be accessible for the last three months of school to any student not testing.
"I think a lot of schools are in the same boat as us," Priestley said.
On Monday, the students in the social media class were still reeling from the presentation they gave to the group of schools in the Rural Alliance. They held up a jar of pencils that people broke at the event. The jar was overflowing.
"We were so nervous standing in front of all those people," said Anna Cox, 16.
In the student-created packet of information, a letter states: "A students' success should not be measured by a test score. It should bear more weight on a student as a whole, containing: leadership skills, work ethic, communication skills, and service to community."
The students said they believe the tests have the unintended consequence of teaching to the test.
"Terminate Trivial Testing is not about one school district in Colorado. It's about students who are tired of taking trivial tests and losing valuable instruction time," the students wrote.
On the Web
To watch a video of the student's speech, go to:
www.facebook.com/TerminateTrivialTesting
