Ed Notes Extended

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

MORE's Brian Jones, Secretary of Department of Education, Will End TFA Contracts and Repeal NCLB and RTTT

In his spare time Brian is running for UFT Secretary on the MORE slate in the upcoming UFT elections.
The Indypendent newspaper "appointed" me US Secretary of Education and asked me "what would you do?" My reply will be in the print edition that comes out soon, and is online here: http://www.indypendent.org/2013/01/21/no-school-left-behind ---- Brian
Brian Jones has taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years, and is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers). Brian is a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has contributed to several books, including Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation.

Brian along with MORE presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh, narrated the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman."

Issue # 183
Brian Jones
Secretary
Department of Education
As the new Secretary of Education, my first priority will be to reverse the trend toward the privatization of the public schools, to end the pervasive climate of fear and demoralization among the nation’s educators and to urgently promote desegregation and genuine equality of resources and opportunity in all K-12 schools.

Toward this end, I will seek an immediate repeal of No Child Left Behind legislation and of the Race to the Top competition. Together, these have raised the stakes of standardized assessments beyond any reasonable proportion; narrowed the curriculum; created a culture of corruption; cheating and competition between schools; and have increased the trend toward teaching as a short-term job, not as a long-term profession. I will call for an end to high-stakes standardized testing and a moratorium on school closings. Just as we commit ourselves to teaching every single student, we will likewise commit ourselves to improving every single school.

Teachers must be trained in the very best practices and must be given the opportunity to learn from experienced educators during their training. In our highest-needs municipalities, students only rarely have teachers who are from their community, and teacher turnover is high. Teach for America cannot be the model of teacher training for our schools. Therefore, I will seek an end to Teach for America contracts with municipalities nationwide. Shortages must be addressed by strengthening our schools of education and by developing pathways to train community members to serve as educators in their schools.

READ MORE

Brian Jones has taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years, and is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers). Brian is a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has contributed to several books, including Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation.

2 comments:

  1. To get more support behind MORE, you need to speak more to the everyday concerns of teachers and less about "social justice" I know MORE represents our only hope and will back it. Unity is a joke. But "social justice" will not resonate with a majority of teachers. It is too political and not relevant to the real everyday struggles we face in our schools

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will call for an end to high-stakes standardized testing and a moratorium on school closings. Just as we commit ourselves to teaching every single student, we will likewise commit ourselves to improving every single school. Teachers must be trained in the very best practices and must be given the opportunity to learn from experienced educators during their training.
      Let's see -- he opposes high stakes testing, closing schools, supports experienced educators, bashes TFA, opposes charter invasion --- are you telling me these are not the concerns of teachers when in fact they are the greatest threat? And if you are telling me that they are not aware of these issues then it is even more imperative that MORE tell them about it.

      Delete

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