Unstandardized: Nurturing Joy In Learning
Speaker Bios
Dr. Denisha Jones
Dr. Denisha Jones, director of the Sarah Lawrence College Art of Teaching graduate program, has long been an advocate for young students and for their opportunity to receive an excellent and equitable education based not on arbitrary standards, but instead on how children actually develop. She’s an advocate for re-thinking and updating many common education practices and policies, like testing, to reflect the voices of classroom teachers and knowledge from the field.
In addition to her leadership at Sarah Lawrence, Denisha is the co-director of Defending the Early Years and a leader in the Black Lives Matter at School initiative, a coalition of educators organizing for racial justice in education. As part of this, she and colleague Jesse Hagopian are co-editors of Black Lives Matter at School, which the Washington Post writes, “springs from a movement that started several years ago to resist racism and imbue anti-racism in school curriculums as well as educational practices and policies.”
Denisha’s advocacy for racial justice in education extends far beyond the classroom. During an education forum as part of the 2020 presidential campaign, Denisha’s question to then-candidate Joe Biden went viral. She asked: “If you are elected president, will you commit to ending the use of standardized testing in public schools?”
Biden responded, saying, “Teachers should be able to determine the curriculum in their schools… I think it’s a big mistake to move in a direction where it’s all about evaluating a teacher or student based on testing. Teaching to a test underestimates and discounts the things that are most important for students to know.”
Congressman Jamaal Bowman
Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D., represents New York’s 16th District, which includes the Northern Bronx and parts of Westchester County, including Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Mount Vernon. Bowman was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from the University of New Haven, Rep. Bowman began his career as a crisis intervention teacher in a Bronx public school and went on to earn a master’s degree in guidance counseling from Mercy College and a doctorate in education from Manhattanville College.
In 2009, Bowman founded Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a Bronx middle school focused on unlocking the natural brilliance of all children through a holistic curriculum, where he served as principal for a decade. At CASA, Bowman worked to center students’ voices, cultural awareness, and love. He worked to ensure advanced student involvement in science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Bowman has also been an outspoken advocate for rethinking education, including ending state-sanctioned yearly standardized testing.
Bowman lives in Yonkers, New York, with his wife and children.