Today- Change the Stakes Meeting Plus Some Facts

UPDATE: 7PM - I'm sitting at the meeting for the past 2 hours with over 20 teachers, parents, college teachers, researchers and even some kids. On an Friday in August. And every minute of the meeting has been so rich and enlightening. These meetings will continue the 3rd Friday of every month. Next: Sept. 21, 5:30PM at CUNY.

Change the Stake, an offshoot of the  Grassroots Education Movement, has become one of the few true parent/teacher groups that I know of. We have a full agenda today and I will update people on the status of our next film about high stakes testing.

Friday, August 17th, 5 PM SHARP (everyone welcome to arrive at 4:30 for pre-meeting mingling)

Room 5414 CUNY Grad Center, 5th Ave. between 34th and 35th Streets

PLEASE BRING ID TO ENTER THE BUILDING

We have tentatively scheduled a separate meeting on Tuesday, September 4th to specifically discuss the Opt Out experience of last school year, and think strategically about the Opt Out strategy for the coming year.

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Pat D writes:

Here is a good article to read.  Kohn speaks about boycotting tests as wellas why we should be against them and what we can do. Fighting the Tests by Alfie Kohn

Some Statistics:

... a recent poll in Texas which showed that only 27% of teachers in Texas felt that increased test scores reflected increased learning and higher quality teaching. 85% of teachers said that they neglected subjects not covered by the TAAS exam.

Senator Paul Wellstone Speech on High-Stakes Testing: http://www.wpaag.org/

WellstoneHighStakesTests.htm

The following are from:

Correlations: Pass Rates and Poverty Rates « GFBrandenburg's Blog

 Janine follows:

The link to Sen. Wellstone's speech isn't connecting, (maybe you must be a member?) but lead me to seek it out here: 
http://www.wpaag.org/

WellstoneHighStakesTests.htm

The site that (likely once) had the post is an organization I've never heard of and maybe we should be reaching out to them, since (unless funded by those who are only pretending to be for children), seem to hold the values we also hold:  http://www.
educationrevolution.org/

Though I was not familiar with Sen. Wellstone's perspective on most things, I always thought his death was questionable.  After reading this, I'm even more suspicious......What a loss to this cause.  For those who look further into things like this:  http://www.snowshoefilms.com/
wellstone.html


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