Red Emma’s

I Am Not a Test Score: Lessons Learned from Dreamingis a collaborative book written by Youth Dreamers themselves, young people who have grown up in Baltimore City schools and believe in alternatives to standardized testing.

This 9 x 9, full color, image heavy, 371 page, hardback coffee table book shares what Youth Dreamers and our adult allies learned from dreaming and building Baltimore’s only youth-run youth center—The Dream House.   It includes best practices, lessons learned, and examples of project-based, community-building curriculum.

We hope this book will not just inspire, but will encourage students, teachers, parents, and community members to challenge the problems in their schools, redirecting the emphasis on standardized testing toward programs promoting leadership, character, and youth voice.

Seven students with over 40 years of collective experience working with the Youth Dreamers and two adult allies (including the original Teacher-Director) spent two years pulling together old pictures, lesson plans, student work, and more to tell our story! 

“For young people trying to make a difference in their communities, this book is an invaluable resource -- a road map showing how to change minds, overcome obstacles, and realize dreams. For the rest of us, it offers inspiration, hope, and evidence of how much determined young people can achieve, even with limited resources. I'm proud of everything Youth Dreamers have accomplished, and thrilled that they managed to get it all down on paper.“

-- Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character