At Brooklyn New School (BNS), testing has been the source of anxiety, uncertainty and dismay for students. However, while administrators around the country are scaring students and parents from opting out of tests, the principal of BNS, Anna Allanbrook is helping her parents and students through this process by providing them with honest information about testing and a choice to opt out. She has also organized alternatives to testing in the form of alternate activities for students.  Helping students and parents opt out could affect her school grade, something she is evaluated on.  However, she realizes her students and parents are more important saying, “By my age, my position is relatively safe; I feel like I’ve learned a lot and should express what younger principals and teachers are too scared to say.” For supporting parents and students and helping them navigate the tough decisions around opting out of standardized testing, Anna Allanbrook, principal of the Brooklyn New School, you are ConversationED’s Hump Day Hero.

Read the piece in the New Yorker about Ms. Allanbrook here.