Next GEM Meeting: Monday, June 20th-- Help Build a Campaign for Test-Free Teacher Evaluations!

The push for test-based accountability is out of control and seems to have no sign of slowing down. Standardized test scores have already been used in New York City to justify shuttering over a hundred public schools; often times that space is then handed off to education corporations known as charter schools. Now up to 40% of teacher evaluations in New York State could be based on tests, meaning that it would be next to impossible for a teacher to achieve a satisfactory rating with a poor grade on test-based measures.

We know that high-stakes testing narrows the curriculum and leads to teaching to the test. Instead of delivering the kind of challenging lessons which foster critical thinking and create thoughtful citizens, teachers feel pressured into teaching in ways we know are not effective: rote drills and memorization of multiple choice questions from previous exams. Students of color are most likely to fall victim to this kind of low-level instruction, which has become common-place in schools which are obsessed with raising test scores.

Join us for the next meeting of The Grassroots Education Movement to clarify our understanding of the ways in which the addition of test-based measures into teacher evaluations connects to the drive to privatize our public schools AND to build a campaign to advocate for test-free teacher evaluations!

Monday, June 20th, 5pm
CUNY Graduate Center
34th St and 5th Ave
(Please bring ID)

After the discussion on teacher evaluations we will break into action groups focusing on a variety of issues like planning the fight against next year's closings and co-locations, building Fight Back Friday for the fall, the Save our Schools march in July, and of course our test-free teacher evaluation campaign. Please join us! All are welcome!