Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Brian Jones Made Sure to Touch on Ruelas Suicide on Education Nation Forum

Boy I bet they are sorry they allowed the fox into the pen. Standing all alone (don't count Randi on his side), among all the other points, Brian Jones made sure to bring up the suicide of Rigoberto Ruelas toward the end of the forum on MSNBC's ed deform fest.
People have been asking for links but I can't find any. Since Brian's points dominated the discussion, they probably burned the tapes.

We will be at Rockefeller Plaza today at 4pm with Leonie Haimson, Mona Davids, Julie Cavanagh and others - Parents Across America, Class size matters - CAPE, GEM and NY Charter Parents Association - to let them know what we think about this sham. map here.
After Brian brought up the story, LA Teachers Union President AJ Duffy called out from the audience to confirm the story about a well respected teacher being so distraught over the embarrassment of having been publicly identified as a poor teacher. For most people it is hard to imagine but when a teacher goes so far beyond the call like Ruelas seems to have done, the devastation must have been intense. (See Brian's panel here: http://tiny.cc/wf4jh).


Sunday night I and a whole bunch of bloggers wrote about Rigoberto. You can find links in this post.

Blood on Their Hands

This morning GEM received this email from a colleague of Rigoberto:
Hello Fellow Educators,

I am a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School located in South Los Angeles. Recently, the elementary public school teachers of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have become the subject of a series of articles published by the LA Times which focus on the creation of a database that publicly ranks our performance as educators using a highly controversial evaluative method known as Value-Added Methodology (VAM). The pressure to increase test score output, along with the humiliation that came from receiving a widely disseminated poor review have seemingly resulted in the loss of one of our most beloved educators, Rigoberto Ruelas. This type of evaluation that is so highly regarded by proponents of "Race to the Top" brand of educational reform has caused irreparable damage and is being used as a weapon to destroy public school education. I ask for your help in spreading the word about what has happened to us and to stand in solidarity with us as we fight on behalf of our dear friend, Rigoberto Ruelas, and all educators and students across the nation who are being damaged by the policies of NCLB and the current administration.

Here's a link to an article about Mr. Ruelas:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/27/rigoberto-ruelas-lausd-te_n_740544.html

Peace and Justice,
Grace Marroquin
Also read this piece in the LA Times, which is trying to wash the blood off its hands.

2 comments:

Paul A. Moore said...

Of course the people who work at the LA Times are not responsible for the murder of our brother teacher Rigoberto Ruelas. But the newspaper's corporate master Sam Zell could justifiably be indicted for the crime.

It's one of those painful ironies the journalist and other print newspaper workers and teachers and other public school workers will either overcome and defeat the same enemy or both be destroyed by it.

In the case of DC that would be Kaplan and Dell and Gates who will destroy the Washington Post and the DCPS unless we can unite, journalists and teachers, to defeat them. In the case of LA that would be Broad and Zell and Gates (that scourge is everywhere) who will destroy the LA Times and the LAUPSD unless...

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