The idea for this event emerged out of a GEM steering committee meeting in Feb. We postponed once because the UFT announced it would be doing some protest on March 15 which turned out to be the usual nothing.
The Change the Stakes committee has evolved into a strong parent influenced group with a lot of opt-out action. Leonie has some good stuff about it: NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!
And The Assailed Teacher also posted: The New Civil Disobedience
A great panel has been recruited headlined by Carol Burris and joined by NYC teacher/writers/bloggers Gary Rubinstein (see his blog) and Arthur Goldstein and joined by leading parent activist Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. After the panel speaks we will try to come up with strategies for fight back.
Julie Cavanagh will moderate. Independent filmmaker and reporter Jaisal Noor and I will be taping (I will also be doing interviews for our new film on high stakes testing. See my interview with Diane Ravitch.)
This is not just a sit, listen and ask a question event but has a working component to develop strategies to create the kind of rational policy we are not seeing out of the UFT and NYSUT.
NEW SPEAKER ADDED: Khalilah Bran, Teacher, Bushwick Community High School, a school threatened with closure: Bushwick Community High School’s supporters protested its planned turnaround. (GothamSchools, NY1).
More on BCHS:
This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven ...
mikethemadbiologist.com/.../this-is-arguably-the-most-disgusting-fail...
Apr 4, 2012 – Michael Winerip has a great article about Bushwick Community High School, a transfer school–essentially the last stop for failing students.
Teacher Evaluation Nightmare !
a forum on testing, teacher evaluations and our schools
a forum on testing, teacher evaluations and our schools
Tuesday, April 17 at 5:30 PM
411 Pearl Street, Manhattan
(Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall Station 4,5,6 -Fulton Street Station 2,3 - Chambers
Street Station J)
Come to a Meeting to Discuss: Why are the new teacher evaluations bad for teachers, students, and families?
How can we organize to change them?
Speakers:
Carol Burris:
L.I. Principal, one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by nearly 1,400 New York principals. Leonie Haimson: parent activist and Exec. Director of Class Size Matters
Gary Rubinstein:
Math teacher at Stuyvesant High School and critical analyst of the Teacher Data Reports
Arthur Goldstein:
E.S.L. teacher and chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School in Queens |
 |
Come hear
speakers explain how the new evaluations will work and the implications
for students, teachers, families, and education. Join the discussion
of how we can organize to change the final outcome.
Co-sponsored
by: Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, and Parents Across
America
Blog : http://gemnyc.org/ or email: gemnyc@gmail.com
I would love to be there but Tuesdays are my Hebrew School teaching days. I will be in the 5 Towns area at that time.
ReplyDeletetHIS IS THE TACK TO TAKE; EVER ONWARD AND UPWARD.
ReplyDelete.....But class size doesn't really matter, it's a red herring! The only thing the reduction in class size does is increase the amount of teachers out there which is what the union wants. Instead of increasing the workforce, let's put some accountability out there and improve the quality of the workforce as well. I am not a teacher basher and know there is an enormous amount of great teachers out there, but there is also a fair share of bad teachers out there... We should be putting the interest of children first
ReplyDeleteGee, I wonder how you know about all the great and bad teachers. Must have been from spending 35 years teaching in the poorest neighborhood in Brooklyn like I did where I saw hundreds of teachers. I should have thought about putting children's interests first instead of those nasty adults.
ReplyDeleteAs an expert why not check in with the people who spend 30 grand a year to send their kids to schools with low class sizes. Check with Obama, Duncam, Bloomberg and see how many in their kids' classes.
ReplyDelete