"Since she started teaching in 2005, Heizer says she has seen a decrease in students’ ability to think critically, collaborate, write persuasively, and other skills that cannot be easily measured by a test, another issue that she attributes to an overreliance on standardized tests as an indicator of knowledge or success to the detriment of more creative or flexible forms of learning.
“I think we need to do a better job of helping our teachers, empowering them to say it’s okay to do this fun stuff. It’s important. It’s valid,” Heizer said. “I think we haven’t been empowering them to do that, because we’ve been pressuring them so much on tests.”
Thank you to Fairfax Times for the chance to share my vision and experience with you!
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NEA Video - "Keeping the Promise of Public Education." Rachna and Jake's presentation starts at 1:04
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(May 1, 2018) Catherine Read speaks with Rachna Sizemore Heizer about her son, Jake Sizemore, who is a local musician with special needs. Rachna speaks with Catherine about her journey as a parent navigating the system with a child with an autism diagnosis, and how she learned to focus on Jake’s abilities, instead of his disabilities, in order to discover his gifts.
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(Aug. 20, 2018) Catherine Read sits down with inclusion advocate Rachna Sizemore Heizer about her experience and desire to change the conversation around disabilities to focus on “ability-based inclusion.”
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In the September 7 episode of “The Progressive Happy Hour,” co-host Drew Courtney and guest host Diallo Brooks talk to Rachna Sizemore Heizer, disability rights activist and board member of the Virginia Autism Project, about the fight for a more inclusive progressive movement that incorporates disability not just as a health care issue, but as an issue that affects people in every aspect of their lives.
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Netroots Nation, the largest gathering of progressive political activists in the nation, convened its annual meeting in New Orleans on Wednesday, August 1. Rachna Heizer of Fairfax is training activists on “Empowering the Largest Minority Group: Diversity Outreach to People with Disabilities,” and Delegates Mark Keam and Jennifer Boysko are scheduled on a panel with Fairfax residents Holly Seibold and Catherine Read on Menstrual Equity issues.
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Rachna Heizer will never forget the time she was in the kitchen and heard the sound of nursery rhymes coming from the hallway. A few years later, Jake taught himself pop songs on the guitar, followed by the drums. So Heizer found it strange that when Jake was in fourth grade, he was left out of his school’s talent show.
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