Ed Notes Online: WAGPOPS, District 14 Resources for Opt-Outers

Thursday, March 27, 2014

WAGPOPS, District 14 Resources for Opt-Outers

My old district where I worked for 35 years is beginning to come up big time in the opt-out movement -- and new alliances are being built with parents, some principals and the Superintendent -- many people I've known for decades plus the newcomers.

Below is a letter from parent activist Lorna. I taped the town hall last week. Link: https://vimeo.com/90159926

Hello Parents --

As you know, the state tests begin next Tuesday.

I have spoken to several of you on separate occasions about my family's decision to opt out. We are not opting out because we oppose testing and assessment of students, we are doing it because:

What used to be assessment has become corporate-driven, high-stakes tests that are used as an instrument to punish teachers.

Overemphasis on testing robs our kids of a well rounded education, and robs teachers of their ability to offer individualized instruction.

Ultimately, Common Core Standards and all the curricula and tests that go along with it serve to enrich corporations instead of our children.

As part of Race to the Top, New York State sold away our children's personal data to third party vendors like Gates-funded InBloom, without allowing us to opt-out.

Please know that these tests are not desired or concocted by our teachers, principal, or any local administration. It's being forced by the State, and since our previous mayor and his staff were in full support of it, teachers and administrators could not speak out...

...BUT WE CAN!

By agreeing to the Race to the Top initiative, the State has taken away our right to a decent education, the right of teachers being allowed to teach, the right to have well-designed curriculum materials that are designed to educate not confuse and confound, the right to preserve private & sensitive educational data about our kids, and the right to equitable funding.

The only hope we have to put a stop to all of this is to OPT-OUT. You will not just be opting out of the tests they put so much faith in -- you'll be sending a message loud and clear that we are taking back our rights.

This weekend, our local grassroots parents' organization, WAGPOPS, wrote a letter about the recent Town Hall that our Community Education Council hosted. The letter was sent to all the principals and parent coordinators in our district. Diane Ravitch, one of the most respected education experts/advocates in the nation posted it yesterday on her blog, so if you didn't receive it you can read it here:
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/25/our-education-spring-the-parent-led-opt-out-movement-grows-in-new-york-city/

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Read the link above and the attached "Why Opt Out" letter for more info.

Download the sample "Opt Out Letter" attached, fill it in and send it in to your child's principal and teacher ASAP. I suggest email and print outs in backpacks.

Talk to your child about it and call the school to make sure they are given an alternate activity to do, so they will not be forced to "sit and stare."

SHARE THIS INFO WIDELY!

WE ARE LUCKY...
To live in District 14 because the opt out movement has the full support of all of our elected officials, our superintendent (who hosted the opt-out Town Hall last week) and many, many teachers and administrators.
Because of this, you are backed by a team of powerful people who will not let your child be held back or your school lose funding.

Please reach out to me if you have questions. And if you haven't already, please "Like" WAGPOPS on Facebook to get up-to-date news & info about opting out, as well as all the educational issues that affect Williamsburg & Greenpoint parents.

https://www.facebook.com/WilliamsburgGreenpointParents
If you're still not sure, I have provided some background reading below. :)

Best,
Lorna

MORE READING ABOUT COMMON CORE, OPTING OUT AND THE "ED REFORM" MOVEMENT:

Lots of resources for info on opting out:
http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/
http://unitedoptout.com/
http://www.liparentsforeducation.com/

545 NYS Principals and 3,000 parents sign letter to opt out:
http://scfeeney.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/anopenlettertonewyorkparents_21nov13.pdf

Carol Burris, NYS Principal and education activist:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/04/principal-i-was-naive-about-common-core/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/18/who-are-the-enemies-of-common-core/

Student data and privacy:
http://www.classsizematters.org/inbloom_student_data_privacy/
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/student-data-compiling-system-outrages-article-1.1287990

Bill Gates:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/16/1247790/-What-Bill-Gates-really-thinks-of-Common-Core-State-Standards#
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/deciding-who-sees-students-data.html?_r=0
http://teachersletterstobillgates.com/

Pearson, and that awful curricula:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/31/a-ridiculous-common-core-test-for-first-graders/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/nyregion/standardized-testing-is-blamed-for-question-about-a-sleeveless-pineapple.html
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/01/the-defiant-parents-testings-discontents.html

http://www.wnyc.org/story/312508-did-pearson-go-college/

Diane Ravitch:

http://dianeravitch.net/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Can the readers have a percentage breakdown by district if the number of parents opting out. It seems to me that I haven't heard about parents opting out in the Bx.; Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 3:02:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Thursday, March 27, 2014

WAGPOPS, District 14 Resources for Opt-Outers

1 comment: