It is ironic that the Women's Rights Movement which has opened up the doors of opportunity for talented women to have a greater choice of vocation has had a negative effect on recruiting the most gifted among them for careers in education. The future course of education must be to make the profession as attractive as it has become in Finland.

A recent online kerfuffle raised the question -- yet again -- of whether it is possible for schools to help children of color and children from low-income homes learn to high standards. I'm always a bit surprised that it's still necessary to have this conversation, but I guess it is.

On Thursday March 12, my grandchildren Sadia and Gideon and I rushed to their school early. We joined hands with over two hundred parents, teachers, and kids at P 154 in Windsor-Terrace Brooklyn to protest against Governor Andrew Cuomo's push for high stakes testing.

To all of my precious students: My guess is that all of you will wonder why I am making you take these tests. And the answer is simple. I have to. Our state and federal government say that I have to give these tests to you. That you must take them. And I need you to know how very sorry I am about that.

Parents and students talked about the dramatic changes in curriculum and a flood of test prep in classes and homework. Some spoke about the massive expenditures for technology and testing materials, as hands-on instructional time declined.

Primary and secondary education is a time for students to mature and find what they love and are good at, a time to find what they want to invest their time and hard work into, not a time to find they are not any good at filling in bubbles.

At the moment 68,000 or so NYC 8th graders are anxiously waiting to find out where they'll be offered seats for high school.

When a student does well on a reading test, the results tell us nothing about how well she will use reading as a tool to learn larger topics, nor does it tell us that she will be interested in reading at all. What it tells us is that she is good at taking a reading test.

I believe that the ESEA reauthorization should allow for schools and districts to take a streamlined, positive, student-centered approach to annual assessment then annual testing. In order for this to work, the assessment must be aligned to college and career standards.

We are offended by the situation in which we find ourselves, in which education policy is dictated by billionaires who never taught a day in their lives, while our patiently gained professional expertise is ignored. Thirty days of testing is sufficiently outrageous and -- we believe -- indefensible.

Educators tell us the PARCC exam is developmentally inappropriate. When New York State piloted the PARCC exam, over seventy percent of students failed. Not to be all braggy, but I've got a PhD from UChicago, and found the 7th grade practice exam to be tedious and confusing.

With the rise of the Millennials, who best know the harsh truth about high-stakes testing, and the "creepy" implications of data-driven stigmatization and tracking of children, the days of test-driven reform should be numbered.

At this point in my high school career, I no longer have to worry about standardized testing. I have several junior friends, however, that are where I once was: stressed out, asking for advice on how to get the perfect score, willing to pay for the countless practice books I own.

I decided to ask Finnish educator and author Pasi Sahlberg for his thoughts on the previously-noted, supposed "truth" about Finland and its education system.

Do we need annual testing to tell us that poverty in childhood has lifelong consequences in health, education, and economic opportunity? Do we need annual testing to tell us that communities with high concentrations of minority students from impoverished households struggle on test-based measures?

A myopic focus on reading and math has turned kindergarten into a place where unique beings go for standardization, followed by 12 more years of it. This standardized approach to learning supposedly prepares them for placement in an economy that no longer exists.