Organized Students of Chicago

[Will Tanzman <HereticUU@AOL.COM>]

  I am writing to give everybody a last update on the OSC before I sign off. We have been planning events and recruiting for over a year now, and we continue to make progress both in the student community and in the press.  A demonstration in January drew well over a hundred students, which is admittedly fairly small but was a victory for us because it included representation from a relatively wide variety of schools and socio-economic circumstances.  About two hundred students boycotted the Prarie State Exam with us in February, this time also including students from outside Chicago.
That landed us a huge picture on the front page of one of the two major Chicago newspapers.  Our most recent protest had a somewhat disappointing turnout but drew a lot of attention from the press because of the recency of the IOWA retentions and our last boycott.

  We have also broadened our focus to include other school reform issues as well such as lower class size and higher teacher pay (if anybody is interested, I can e-mail our complete proposal).  Many of our members are
joining other activist organizations in a push to unify the youth movement in Chicago, which seems to be growing across the board.

  Perhaps most importantly, the transition in leadership from the founders, who all graduated this year, to a group of younger students, has been very
successful.  For the first time, I am completely sure that the Organized Students of Chicago is going to continue to push for an educational system oriented around the needs of students rather than politicians.

  I just graduated high school and am spending the summer in Washington, DC, so my time as a prominent force in the OSC has come to an end.  I am remaining in touch with the organization, but only so that they have
a resource if they feel they need it.  All correspondence should now go to LaShunda Shavers, whose e-mail address is impossiblemins@msn.com, Reggie Davis, at reggieda@yahoo.com, Jeff Orr, at smashracism@hotmail.com, Anders Turpin, at Rodann8@yahoo.com, and Ruth at Clairvoyant@bust.com.  Also, if anybody knows of assessment reform activities (or any education reform, for that matter)in New Haven, CT, I would appreciate it if you would e-mail me so I can get involved.  I want to thank everybody on the ARN listserv for helping me gain a deeper understanding of the whole testing situation in the United States.  I look forward to hearing about all of you on the news!

Sincerely,
Will Tanzman

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