Sarah Vasquez-Layton says testing requirements blocked her from journalism elective

Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council.

My name is Sarah Vasquez-Layton.

I'm an 11th grader at Urban Assembly School for Media Studies.

I am here today to talk about my education and access to it.

I developed my passion for journalism in seventh grade at a private school when I was put in the elective by accident.

I immediately fell in love with it.

Now, I'm at a public high school that has a journalism elective, but is treated as an afterthought.

My admin and teachers have even asked me to help promote the elective myself because the school doesn't have the resources to do so.

Meanwhile, I picked my school because of its name.

Media studies, but I haven't been able to participate in the journalism program because I was forced into other classes to meet testing and graduation requirements.

Finally, this semester I am in the elective, but I didn't just wait until now to grow in journalism.

I took matters into my own hands.

Like Amani, I had to look outside of my school, so I joined YJC.

With this opportunity came many others.

Like this summer, I was able to attend the School of the New York Times and study.

scientific journalism.

So when I finally entered my journalism class on Friday the 11th, it felt wrong.

Not because I didn't want to be in it, but because the class is in its beginning stages and it doesn't have the resources to support me.

I realized that it could have started in that classroom over a year ago.

But classes like journalism are constantly pushed aside because our current system prioritizes standardized testing over everything else.

Regents exams force us to dismiss information that doesn't seem relevant to a test.

I have experience having to skip half a textbook just to prepare for an exam six months away.

Valuing test scores over actual meaningful learning.

I am glad the state is taking action through the portrait of a graduate.

But I need you to take another thing with you on this journey of changing education.

Acknowledge that the change that has happened in our history has been because of journalists.

We need people to speak the truth, ask hard questions, and be our messengers.

Journalism teaches us how to do that.